Hello,
I was employed for 2 and a half years at an auto collision shop. The work was commission labor. So when the work got slow and they had nothing for me to do I began looking for other employment. I quit (something I did not want to do) and went to the oilfield in West Texas. I went to work for a company for two days and found that I just could not do the job. I took a physical and was aware of what the job requirements were. I was not sent to an orientation, which is something that most drilling companies do. I was told that it would be scheduled for a later date, that I was needed to go to work now! So aside from what I had been told about the job from family members and friends, I was in the dark as to what I was to be doing. When I say I was aware of the job requirements, that’s what I mean. I had just been told about them from other sources and not the company. I applied for unemployment thinking that it would mainly hinge on the body shop that I worked for before the two day employment on the oil rig. However, all they asked about was the two day employer and employment. Over and over again I was grilled as to why I quit. I told them that I wasn’t physically able to do the job, that I wasn’t sent to the orientation, that I didn’t tell a supervisor that I was quitting. The reason I didn’t inform them I was quitting is because that’s how the oilfield works. Guys come and go, people walk off all the time. I was following by example. I found out today that I was disqualified for unemployment. Even though I have requested a payment, been sent a letter of to how much I would be receiving while on unemployment, got the work sheets for job searches, the whole nine yards. So whats the deal?
The last work you worked is the work you became unemployed from which moved you to file a claim. A separation from subsequent work after filing a claim will then control whether you have a right to continue collecting benefits.
By the way, my thought is even if you had been “non-monetarily” (merit decision) qualified due to the separation from the oilfield job .. you still would not get benefits because then they would start looking at the separation from the autobody job to make sure it was qualifying or that you earned enough money in the oilfield job to purge any disqualification fro the autobody job if disqualified on that separation.
Ya, unemployment is straight forward .. only if you don’t understand how it works.
By the way, they have to send that stuff out to you and they have to make the monetary determination first to make sure you have a “valid claim” to unemployment based on TX monetary or earning requirements.