by jenjole
(Colorado)
a co worker missed a scheduled shift due to a visit to the emergency room where she was diagnosed to have a “drug reaction”. She told my manager that I had given her drugs the day before. I denied her accusation and volunteered to take a lie detector test and submit an urine analysis. I was not given the opportunity and was instead fired, my co worker was not fired. I filed an unemployment claim in Colorado. My employer disputed my claim based on citation 8-73-108, Colorado employment security act, which states that I was discharged for being rude, insolent, or offensive to another person while on the job. Other persons are not expected to accept or condone such actions. Determining I was responsible for the seperation and a disqualification is imposed. I do plan to appeal. This dispute is totally false. How can I prove my case? Why did my employer lie? I was told I was fired for giving my co worker drugs. Help!!!!
Hi,
Well, I could probably help more if you selected to have a phone consultation with me, but I’ll give helping you a shot by telling you the things I would probably want to know about your situation.
1. Have you ever been previously warned about how you treat others at work or has anyone including this co-worker ever brought complaints about your treatment of them to the employer?
2. Does the employer have anything concrete besides the accusation of the co-worker to work with?
Since you are in Colorado when you receive the hearing notice, you will have the state file in hand and should then have the full details of what the employer told the state.
It’s Colorado that chose the citation and I think “insolence” covers what you’ve been accused of.
In fact, if it were true, I would call it criminal.
You are not the one who must sustain the burden that you actually did this .. it is the employer.
Even if you had been previously warned, the “final incident” needs to be sustained as misconduct. In these types of cases .. the employer would be wise to have the co-worker offer the testimony as to what you have been accused of and the decision becomes basically, a credibility decision.
Which is why I asked if there have been previous complaints from co-workers about you that could damage your credibility.
If this is the one and only thing that’s ever happened .. the ability to prove misconduct decreases dramatically.