Unemployment contesting

[TRAVIS75]

What is the name oWhat is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? WASHINGTON
I am writing on behalf of my wife, who put in 7 years as a shift supervisor. I will go through the story as I don't know what will be pertinant information.

She worked for a corporation that I probably shouldn't name. But they deal in pharmacy, photo etc, similar to a walgreens. Some months ago they had a brief 15 minute meeting with all supervisors and the manager telling them about a scam going around involving western union. The scam was ran by somebody hacking into western unions account info and learning different companies who had called in a problem with their western union. They (the scammers) would steal all passwords and security information that would be needed to call a store that provided western union services and pose as tech support. They would provide you with all the passwords and information that would make you think they were with western union.

The company (one my wife worked for) had called several times to report that when trying to do a western union transaction they would get bumped offline. A week or so later, the scammers called, and caught my wife trying to get out of the store to avoid overtime while also making sure shift change was complete. They provided her with passcodes etc, and said they needed to try and run a test, had her punch in passcodes and various other numbers. When they were done they said she should be good to go.

The following morning when she ran the reports from the day before, she realized that in all the numbers they had her punch in, she had sent a 980 dollar western union to a location back east that had already been picked up.
She immediately called her manageer and the loss prevention manager and told them what had happened.

In the meeting they had a few months prior this scam had been discussed. She was aware of it, but in the midst of getting shifts covered and getting out of there to avoid going into overtime, she had forgotten the 15 minute meeting.
She offered to have payroll deductions to cover her mistake. Needless to say a month later she was fired. 7 years of never calling in sick, covering for those who did. She lost our only benefits, etc.

She filed for unemployment, it took nine weeks before she received her first check, it was retroactive, so it was a decent check. She has since received 2 more. It stated in the letter with her first check that her employer still had the right to contest the payment of unemployment and if the decision was reversed we would be responsible for the repayment of any that had been distributed. So we've just been putting it in savings, and skimping by.

Today we received notice that they are indeed contesting it. I don't know if this is normal, that they or all companies do this as a last ditch effort to avoid paying unemployment and handing out a final screwing or not? Is it common for this type of thing to be overturned? Should I get an attorney, and if so and they lose their contetment hearing can I file suit for reimburstment for attorneys fees?

Any and all input is oh so much appreciated.f your state (only U.S. law)?

[ecmst12]

I don't think this could be considered willful misconduct, only negligence at the worst. She just needs to cooperate with the investigation and tell the truth at the hearing, I think she will do ok. Wait for more detailed info from Commentator

[TRAVIS75]

See when they (UE) finally contacted her, they actually called and asked for her to recount the events that lead up to her dismissal. They said they were basically comparing notes with what Rite Aids side of the story was. So it is my belief that they were contesting it to start with, I've never been called by UE to verify my dismissal before, of course I've only ever collected once and it was years ago. And now that the first "ruling" has been okayed and money disbursed, they are filing another "grievance?" for lack of a better term. But I don't know. I had only thought after being fired you could only be denied for intentionally doing something menacing and intentional. Its not as though she figured out a way to send western union money to a family member or friend and she stole the money. It was to me an obvious lack of security by western union that was allowing the scam to take place in the first place, for someone to be able to hack into your system and steal passcodes to me means your firewall or whatever obviously was compromised.

A person could almost think that they could get sued for continuing to operate with the knowledge that their system had been compromised and was an ongoing problem.

On another note, it was finally discovered that the whole reason they kept getting "bumped offline" was because the pharmacy at this store that I will call "Wrong Aid" had a shared fax line with the Western Union line. So of course had the company not been so cheap and coughed up the extra dough so pharmacy could have a dedicated line, problems again would have been dodged.

No matter what she messed up, she admitted they need to just let her collect her meager unemployment and get on with her life.

[mlane58]

The employer wasn't contesting the claim, they were answering a notice of application and the UEI reps have to investigate both sides. Come down off your high horse and put the blame where it belongs---at your spouse's feet. Your spuse screwed up and needs to accept responsibility.

[commentator]

You do not need to do anything. Your wife will be notified when the hearing will be held. She will simply listen to the employer present their case that she committed willful misconduct, and then she will present her side of this situation. Apparently what she told the ajudicator who was making the initial decision was good enough that they did approve her claim. She would have to have been determined to have committed an actual act of misconduct, and this does not seem to be the case, though she may have made a mistake in giving out the information to the scammers. The company was also contacted and was asked for information regarding her termination. It is possible to be denied unemployment even if the employer does NOT contest the claim. They were perfectly within their rights to contest the claim, even if they promised her they wouldn't fight it.

She needs to continue to file for weeks, though she may not be getting paid in a timely manner. After the initial decision, either party may appeal the decision, this is not spite or a "last ditch" effort or anything unreasonable on the part of the employer. If your wife had been denied the initial decision, she would have had the right to ask for this hearing, the same as they did.And no, there is no way you can be reimbursed for hiring an attorney to represent your wife in this hearing. And no way you can complain that she has not received her benefits timely.

What you need to do is back off and let your wife do the hearing in a polite and professional manner. She will be the only one who is allowed to discuss her claim with the unemployment office, and you can do nothing but advise. If she was a manager, she should be able to present her own case and handle this situation without too much assistance from you.

[TRAVIS75]

If you read the last line of my post, it clearly states that ultimately it was her fault. Just simply stating that for such a huge company such as Western Union, who deals exclusively in money transfers which totals in the millions everyday I'm sure. That they would continue to act and run business as usual when they know that someone has hacked into their system and stolen and continuing to steal passwords seems to me to be every bit absurd as my wife forgetting about something that took place in a 15 minute meeting 8 months ago.

If your bank knew that someone had stolen 10000 bank account numbers, wouldn't you like to know that the bank was working to resolve the problem and not count on the fact that every single one of their thousands and thousands of employees is going to remember the exact protocol and what to do? This is a scam thats been going on for years, not just a month or so.
She's not even the first person in the company it happened to, however in her region she is the first to get fired for it.

Its all a moot point, she screwed the pooch, called the very minute she realized what had happened. Its done and over with. If only she was the CEO of some fortune 500 company, she could have gotten a multi million dollar severance pay check for running the company into the ground.

[TRAVIS75]

I didn't want to come off as someone who was fighting his wifes battle. We don't have the internet at home, so on my lunch break I thought I'd research it a little, we are in a fairly small town that does have an UE office, but they don't know much about the procedure, or at least thats what she has found by going to the unemployment office and asking.

She didn't give out any information. The scammers call and have already stolen the information from Western Union, including all necessary passwords that only W U is supposed to have, as well as knowing exactly when the calls had been placed for tech support to WU and what they were regarding, all of these things were known, prior to talking to my wife.

One of the most unfortunate things is, that when she was fired it wasn't even up to the manager of the store she worked in. The decision got handed down by the "Higher Beings" who have never seen her work ethics on any given day. Her manager stood up for her, asking that she just be written up, and be given the chance to pay it back via payroll deduction like she'd offered. Obviously that fell on deaf ears. Also this particular manager was just one of the 8 that they had gone through in 7 years she was there. So he probably didn't have much pull.

[commentator]

If they take claims at the office close to you, they know as much as anyone in the whole state. They can take claims, may have someone there who issues decisions, (or may not) but they cannot answer specifics such as "will I be approved?" or "Do I have a good chance of being approved?" No one is allowed to give you any answers to questions like that, or even to give you very specific information about what constitutes misconduct, etc.

If her hearing is going to be held at this office, she will be going to this office and will be meeting the hearing referee there. This is not a court procedure, this is solely an unemployment procedure. If she is going to do a phone hearing, she will be doing a phone hearing probably with an appeals referee in the regional office, but it will be a conference call.

There is a certain procedure that will be followed. Your wife needs to take careful notes and be prepared to ask the employer any relevent questions after both parties have spoken. She needs to tell very precisely what they told her when she was terminated. She needs to stress that she did the job to the best of her abilities and that she did not volunatarily do anything wrong.

The relative injustice or malfeasance of her employer is no longer an issue. The best outcome your wife can hope for is that her benefits are approved in the hearing, and that she will be able to draw until she finds another job.

[TRAVIS75]

The upside is she found another job 10 days after being fired, again working retail. It worked to her benefit that the circumstances she was fired under didn't seem justified to the manager that hired her for her new job. Turns out that she was a regular customer and was glad to hire her, knowing her experience and customer service skills.

It is however part time, and for 4 dollars an hour less than she was making. So we kinda need that UE to cover the difference.

I'll try and repost the progress of this as it goes along. I appreciate all the input and advice you all have posted so far.

[TRAVIS75]

can someone tell me what an ALJ is exactly, from what I read in our letter from UE its an adjudicated law judge. But what does that mean exactly, that is who is supposed to hear the UE contestment hearing.