by Edward
(Santa Clara, California)
I was harassed due to my disability by a supervisor for two years, who did numerous things, including calling me a cripple and ultimately assaulting me. I complained numerous times to HR and my management and the employer found my complaints were not sustained. Then the employer’s management began to retaliate, unreasonably increasing my workload knowing it was painful with my disability, falsely accusing me of misconduct, suspending me based on false accusations by the supervisor, interrupting my medical breaks and challenging my disability status. I complained of harassment and retaliation a total of 10 times to no avail before finally filing an EEOC complaint. We went to an EEOC mediation and the employer refused to look at evidence I had to prove I was telling the truth. They just wanted me to resign and not to deal with the problems. They offered me a settlement for my physical injuries in exchange for a resignation as a condition of settlement.
They also agreed not to contest a ruling by the EDD that I was eligible. I had the phone interview and the EDD determined I am ineligible because I did not exhaust all efforts to keep my job.
I told them how it all happened and they put down that I quit for intolerable working conditions. How could I have tried any more to keep my job? I complained 10 times, many times in writing and to the employer investigator. I complained to EEOC and went to mediation, all to try to get this resolved!
Chris’s Answer
Click for more voluntary quit Q&Ass
And there you have it, an example that shows how a claim adjudicator may in fact rule someone initially ineligible when they should be eligible if they had actually paid attention to the details as to why the voluntary quit was literally attributable to the employer.
You will of course be appealing this erroneous claim determination and with your appeal you may even submit evidence that shows what the adjudicator didn’t believe. That the working conditions really were intolerable. You could likely even find support for that in the CA UIBDG.CA UIBDG.
Another way to look at good cause in your case might be what precipitated you quitting. You sustained physical injuries when assaulted by your supervisor. I’m only assuming there would be a police report for that. And then there is the signed agreement from the process of mediation. Pretty sure that is admissible for unemployment hearing purposes.
Interesting though, that the adjudicator did not ask for any of these since i know they are valuable documents they could of easily asked you to fax, before making their ruling. I guess you might call not asking a convenient omission that literally allowed them to justify the really bad ruling .. based upon the “available information” which by your account should of only been coming from you since the employer also agreed to not protest benefits .. but maybe they did respond “claimant voluntarily quit for personal reasons”.. which isn’t really a protest .. just a response to notice of claim filed.
I’m sorry this happened to you Edward.
The EDD initial determination doesn’t sound fair, or impartial to me given what I do know about UI. It could be they ignored, or just chose not to believe your story about how you exhausted all efforts yourself as desirous of retaining your employment minus the discrimination and physical assault ..
Also sounds like it was at will employment from hell. Hope you’re relieved to be out from under it.
Now go get those benefits, so this employer can pay a little more for allowing it all to happen and get this far.
Chris