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A Crookston, Minnesota employee challenged an unemployment-law judge’s decision that found him ineligible for U.C. benefits for engaging in employment misconduct – urinating in public. What this employee may have lacked in discretion appears to have been compensated for in sheer persistence, for he appealed his case all the way to the Minnesota Court of…
Read MoreGenerally, I don’t write much about unemployment compensation decisions. They don’t impact a business the way a lawsuit can, and employers just don’t seem to find them very interesting. I suspect some of the disinterest stems from unfavorable outcomes employers come to expect when a terminated employee’s application for unemployment compensation benefits is challenged based…
Read MoreIllinois employers often believe that if an employee quits, that employee is not eligible for unemployment insurance benefits. While this is generally true, many legal issues can arise that may muddy the waters. Let us look at the unemployment insurance law in Illinois with regard to voluntary leaving. Under Section 601 of the Illinois Unemployment…
Read MoreIllinois employers take note! The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) has a new notice on its website addressing the remarkable expansion of unemployment insurance benefits under the federal stimulus package known as the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act). The IDES states that not everyone will be eligible for all the…
Read MoreIn this remarkable era of coronavirus legislative relief from Congress, many new laws are impacting employers. This naturally is very stressful because there is suddenly “a new normal” about so many aspects of the workplace. Employers are being asked to adapt very quickly to a virtual ocean of new legislation, and the unemployment insurance area…
Read MoreYesterday, Congressional leaders passed a historic federal stimulus package in response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The bill now travels to The House of Representatives for approval before being signed by President Trump. The legislation includes a new pandemic unemployment assistance program, which would provide unemployment insurance benefits to those who are unemployed,…
Read MoreThe Wisconsin Unemployment Compensation Act defines “misconduct” to include “absenteeism on more than 2 occasions within the 120-day period before the date of the employee’s termination, unless otherwise specified by [the] employer in an employment manual [which the employee has acknowledged receiving].” Wis. Stat. § 108.04(5)(e). What if the employer’s attendance policy defines excessive absenteeism,…
Read MoreIt often happens that an employee tells the employer that the employee is quitting…but later the employee claims the employer really fired the employee. How does this happen? Let’s look at a typical fictional example. Steve, a machine operator, decides that he wants to quit to go to see his sick grandmother who lives in…
Read MoreIn Minnesota, as in most every state, terminated employees are not eligible for unemployment benefits if they are dismissed for misconduct. In 2003, the legislature amended the statute to define “employment misconduct” as “any intentional, negligent, or indifferent conduct, on the job or off the job that displays clearly: (1) a serious violation of the…
Read MoreIn 2013, the Wisconsin legislature tightened the eligibility requirements for unemployment benefits as they related to discharges for attendance. Under the previous law, an employee had to have “5 or more” absences without notice in a twelve-month period in order for his/her absenteeism to rise to the level of statutorily-defined misconduct. The legislature reduced that…
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