Quit job to relocate with spouse due to her job.

I Currently live in FL applied for a job in AL (which is over 1 1/2 hours drive each way) due to the fact that we are trying to sell our house and relocate. The sale of our house fell through can I turn down the job in Alabama without lossing my benefits in Florida?

Hi,

Florida does not have a guide to explain their unemployment rules.

But there is the statute to refer to and maybe if you give an appeal office a call you might ask them if they have a copy of the rules they do use.

The rules would be based on this part of the statute.

443.101
(a) In determining whether or not any work is suitable for an individual, the Agency for Workforce Innovation shall consider the degree of risk involved to his or her health, safety, and morals; his or her physical fitness and prior training; the individual’s experience and prior earnings; his or her length of unemployment and prospects for securing local work in his or her customary occupation; and the distance of the available work from his or her residence.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this chapter, work is not deemed suitable and benefits may not be denied under this chapter to any otherwise eligible individual for refusing to accept new work under any of the following conditions:

1. If the position offered is vacant due directly to a strike, lockout, or other labor dispute.

2. If the wages, hours, or other conditions of the work offered are substantially less favorable to the individual than those prevailing for similar work in the locality.

3. If as a condition of being employed, the individual would be required to join a company union or to resign from or refrain from joining any bona fide labor organization.”

I would think the distance factor would be the most helpful to show you had good cause to refuse.

I resigned from my job in Illinois and relocated to Texas trailing my spouse for work transfer…the unemployment adjudicator in IL approved my benefits today!!! Thank GOD!!!

Yup, but these questions are exclusive to Florida .. but here’s what I’m copying and pasting from DOLETA’s law comparisons to explain why you are receiving unemployment benefits from Illinois.

AR, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MN, NH, NY, NC, OK ? if claimant separates from employment to accompany spouse to a place from which it is
impractical to commute and due to a change in location of spouse?s employment;

This is why benefits are possible for you. Note: Florida is absent from the list of states .. which is not a complete list .. by the way.

Hi,
It is a crying shame that the family unit mean nothing to the bases of the FL/SC/NC unemloyment rulings. I had to quit my job as well and was denied unemployment. When I did an appeal I was told that I was denied by the company for which I worked 10 years because I went to join my husband????? This is after they told me they would have transferred my job. If I went to join my boyfriend or adulterous partner would that have made a difference? Of course I needed to join my family. Maybe if I had lied, I would have gotten benefits because other people get assistance with all kind of lies.
Question: Is request retirement an option?

Hi,

A voluntary retirement is generally considered a voluntary quit that is disqualifying.

A mandatory retirement imposed by an employer is what would have possibility of being a forced resignation.

my family and i recently relocated to Denver from Houston, TX because of my spouse’s work transfer. i originally applied on line for texas unemployment and was denied less than a week later. According to their investigation, they found ‘you quit your last work to move with your spouse’. I have written an appeal letter and placed it in the mail as well as faxing it.

i’m very disappointed with the state of texas.

Hi,

Don’t get me wrong, I understand why this may seem disappointing, given some states actually have provisions within their version of UI laws that extend to “civilian spouses” having the opportunity to have good cause for quitting and moving to keep the family unit together.

Disappointment is not a sound basis for an appeal.

Appeals need some sort of solid ground to stand up on .. and therefore anyone quitting a job in the state of Texas to follow a spouse (civilian or military) should reference Table 5-6 in the 2013 non-monetary eligibility state law comparison chartbook .. published by DOLETA

I have an appeal phone hearing this week. I quit my job in TN to accompany my husband to Florida. He worked 3 1/2 years every weekend, every other day, and was on call twice a week every week. I worked Monday thru Friday for the same company. We had 0 quality of life. We both worked for the same company he, 21 years me 18 years. I have never filed for unemployment.

My husband was unable to find a job in his field in Tennesse. As a result he accepted a position in Florida. He now works Mon thru Fri 8am to 5pm, weekends off, we have a better quality of life.

He requested to have his schedule changed to no avail.

Neither of us can afford to maintain 2 households, we are a 2 income household. I am 50 he is 48. Is this just cause to collect unemployment? I have been reporting weekly, it has been over a month and a half, I have not found employment but continue looking. This is taxing on us financially and I am on several medications.

Any advice?

You probably won’t like my answer, but I will try to explain, so others click the resource for themselves .. no matter what state they quit a job in to follow a spouse to.

To know whether the liable state of Tennessee (liable meaning the state holding the bulk of your wage credits in your claim’s base period) has a provision that can even allow initial validity for an appeal for payment of benefits to quit to follow a spouse, begins with a tiny bit of simple research using DOLETA’s Nonmonetary Eligibility charts.

You’ll notice that in Tennessee, good cause to quit for the reason of following a spouse is restricted to military spouses only.

So, in essence, this means because Tennessee lacks any excepting provision for private sector civilian spouses to quit and follow a spouse to a state where commuting becomes impractical, I suspect you would be denied, unless you have a way to argue at that hearing, how and why your voluntary quit was attributable to your employer.

Generally Anon, benefits might only be possible when and if an employer has some sort of transfer policy that is applicable to your position within a company. It’s when you can back your efforts up that you at least used this route to try to preserve a job with seeking a transfer to the new locale and it’s still denied for some reason that simply ignores a reasonable use of the policy that fault might be proven as being the employers.

So, since you only mentioned that it was your husband who has tried to get his employer to change his job to make the quality of your lives better .. is irrelevant to how I think about your issue. As is the argument you couldn’t afford to maintain two households .. which by the way, would be an argument that could be made to fly in a state where UI law doesn’t have a requirement to attribute fault for quitting to an employer .. (PA for example.