by D.
(Orange County, New York)
I haven’t quit yet.. my questions is. I work for a agency that deals with direct care. I have worked for the agency 13 yrs. as a program assistant(sectatary), and now the agency is laying people off, they are short staff and now they are asking me to include direct care work with my clerical duties. I was hired as clerical, not direct care. Can I quit and collect unemployment?
Hi D.
Direct care? Doing what? Any special training, or License needed or required to do it .. that you don’t have?
First, there is nothing to prevent an employee from quitting their job except their love of it .. or their own need of it.
However, collecting unemployment benefits (partial wage replacement for those losing their job through no fault of their own) is only possible when/if you can prove you tried to preserve your job first and depending on the given circumstances that brought you to the decision .. is also seen as the employer’s fault by the unemployment department.
Good cause can exist, but it’s a defect in the burden that causes a denial because the burden to prove is always assigned to the moving party and because you’re dealing with a quasi judicial state agency .. you have to up your game to meet the law.
I’d like to say “end of story” but the problem is always the same too. Employees don’t systematically do what employers do to fulfill a burden before they fire someone.
And before they quit .. they want a guarantee of winning. I can’t give anyone an assurance they have good cause nor that all the “variables” will play out in their favor once at a hearing.
What I can do though is show you where to starty researching your argument so you can start deciding what you should do to begin creating proof.
The quit as you describe it would be connected to proving that the employer made changes to the terms and conditions of employment and hire, created good cause for you because those changes made the work “unsuitable” .. and the employer refused to see reason.
Please read the following sections of the NY interpretations and let me know if you have more details to offer.
Voluntary Separations from Work
I’m sure you will find information relevant to your situation there in Orange County NY and above all .. don’t forget if you choose to proceed to document your efforts, even if futile, that showed you were being reasonable with the employer and trying to preserve your job.
Documenting is one method of creating “proof” which adds weight to direct testimony at unemployment appeal hearings .. which is where VQ claims usually end up, especially when you get benefits out of the gate.
It’s in your efforts to preserve .. that an employer’s unreasonableness are shown to give you good cause.
Chris