Other Labor Law and your employee rights associated with those laws can impact whether you will be able to collect benefits.
The visual I use to keep this in mind is that therules for collecting unemployment are located at the bottom of the pile of laws.
Many labor laws have been enacted to afford us all additional rights and protections from what most jobs are classified as in the United States. At Will Employment.
Unemployment insurance benefits is usually the first time most employees start thinking about their employee rights.
However, collecting benefits is easier to when you have taken actions as an employee because the law assumes a reasonable person desirous of preserving their employment would actually try to save a job first.
And they also expect even employees, to prove facts .. just like they expect that of employers.
Problem is .. employers know this because they have to comply with labor laws .. and you, for the most part, just want to get paid for doing your job.
That’s the basic problem .. employees often fail to invoke an employee right. Just like muscles .. you have to exercise them properly.
Federal Labor Law
The US Department of Labor tells us there are over 180 labor laws and acts that they are responsible for enforcing. The USDOL is where you will find your basic employee rights and you should know these while you are an employee or at least enough to know when you should investigate further into what your rights might be.
Federal Labor Law is generally considered the required and only the minimum extent of your protections.
State Labor Laws Sorry, I don’t have a page devoted to providing links to all the different State Departments of Labor yet.
In fact, not all states have their own official labor department as some actually defer to the federal minimum requirements.
However, the unemployment Q&A’s might provide a link if that was relevant to the discussion.
Many State labor laws actually expand on the limitations set by federal law .. this is why any type of employment law may vary .. including unemployment .. which is a department or agency every single state is required to have. Take Florida for instance .. The AWI is the only labor related agency I can find.
Interpretation Of Labor Laws .. and Unemployment Statutes
Court decisions are what interpret every single part of a law that is written by “legislators” most of whom .. are lawyers.
Right down to deciphering what was meant by the use of “one word” ..
Court decisions are often politically slanted.
We’re in trouble now .. because most Americans can’t afford to have their own personal law library .. or even a subscription to online legal research.
Talk about a profession that has maintained it’s own value.
Nonetheless, reading decisions and then the decisions referenced within .. is how I’ve managed to wrap any portion of my head around the subject of law that we are expected to know .. when we represent ourselves at an unemployment hearing.
I’m not a lawyer, but I can see the hidden intent to manipulate us into a position with no exit so we have to proceed with our ignorance ..
And one big blank spot for employees is that you should seek out the existence of other employee rights while you’re still an employee to get the best results so you can collect the booby prize of unemployment benefits.
Unemployment Case Law
It is what any unemployment claimant needs to prepare a viable argument. An objective view of how an unemployment hearing works.
It is the precedent decisions that explain what the unemployment law was intended to mean.
If a state provides a decision resource, I will link to it frequently in the Q&A’s because I believe these to be the best resources available for you to prepare the best for an appeal hearing.
Unemployment Laws
The basics I think you should know about unemployment benefits.
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