by J.
(New Jersey)
I was laid off from my job and I claimed unemployment for 4 weeks only because I found a full time job.
I was hired for 7am-3pm shift and everything was going fine until they kept telling me that there was no work due to slowness in the job. Then someone else that has señority over me took the position that i was hired for and I was sent to 3rd shift which is 11pm to 7am in the morning.
The hours are pretty rough for someone that is not used to this schedule but I tried my best to handle it. But now, every now and then I get sent home at 3 or 4 in the morning because there is not enough work. I spoke to supervisors and managers about it and they always tell me they will do something about it but they never do.
I feel frustrated because sometimes my check is $250 a week and that is not enough. If I quit the job for this particular reason and for change of shift would i be able to reopen and qualify for my previous claim?
Answer: I Can’t Advise Anyone to Quit Suitable Work
Quitting suitable work generally, results in a voluntary quit without good cause disqualification if you don’t prepare to meet the burden of quitting .. before you quit.
Although I can’t advise anyone as to when it’s safe to quit a job, I do try to explain where exceptions that can be used to find good cause, whether a claimant of benefits leaves a job with, or without the ability to do more than talk about why they quit, to develop some helpful documentary evidence to prove post separation .. how the fault for quitting literraly can be attributable to an employer who ignores that when they changed things to turn a once suitable job, into an unsuitable job .. they have put their SUTA as risk of being charged for benefits when correctly allowed.
You mentioned the shift change being caused when someone with seniority taking the job and the shift you were originally hired for, so I’d ask if this is a union job and whether there is a contract of “rules” you need to look at first, because NJ doesn’t appear to have passed any right to work laws as of yet.
But, here always comes an undefined length of time, after someone has accepted new, but less favorable working TOC’s for themselves, accepting unsuitable changes to the employment acts as confirmation they had no objection to any new terms and/or conditions .. until they learn too late .. how big a detriment it was .. that if first offered the same terms and condition upon original hire .. they would of turned the job down .. because it was unsuitable .. per the UI criteria of course.
And, because we know the burden of quitting a job with good cause will naturally be assigned to the employee, and because you asked me if you can quit and collect unemployment in New Jersey, I think you should do some further investigating to uncover how NJ applies the general criteria to find when a job is unsuitable enough to quit .. at least for the purpose of you making a more informed decision as to when NJ might pay, or deny benefits on the issue of suitability.
Furthermore, since we know meeting this burden consist of what I think of as being able to prove sincere and exhaustive efforts to preserve a job first .. at unemployment appeal hearings (often held because the employer appealed) have you thought about an alternative to quitting and reopening that claim to find out if you might collect partial unemployment benefits in those weeks your hours as so few, to only earn $250 dollars?
I believe this would be the most reasonable first effort of any employee who needs to show an unemployment department their “attachment to the labor market” and that all important “desire” to be someone’s employee to also assist with proving good cause .. should an employer decide to fire them for simply claiming partial benefits .. or react in such a way, an employee can show the unreasonable party about suitable work .. wasn’t the employee .. but the employer.
Requiring attribution of fault .. is what makes unemployment benefits .. almost always a blame game .. vs. a win/win situation.
You can find the partial unemployment benefits formulas for each state, including New Jersey in this particular book of informative charts regarding monetary eligibility.
I also have links on the resource page to other chart books provided by the USDOL, regarding your non-monetary eligibility issue .. quitting suitable work.