Okay, I know there are contract employees who appreciate the actual concept of working “at will”, but prefer the option of picking and choosing different jobs that contract, or temporary work situations .. and more power to you, but this isn’t always a life choice for others, but necessity.
I do understand the appeal of having the freedom to pick and choose the jobs you want to work, in that it would give one this feeling of being self employed in a way, and therefore, in control.
Of course, I’m leading up to an unemployment insurance benefits .. however.
As when temp employment connects to unemployment benefits and someone learns they don’t come from the employer one was working for on a short, or long term basis, but your actual employer .. who rented, or leased you out to the job for one of it’s clients .. sometimes a contractual client you serve .. at the client’s whim.
And that often has to be connected to how state unemployment laws containing a special temporary worker provision .. or even no provision work if interpreted to work as if there were a special voluntary quit provision for temp employees.
The trend toward hiring temps is not new, but according to surveys conducted by and for HR professionals shortly after the recession, was expected to grow .. and grow it has. Renting, or leasing out employees to clients that choose not to hire permanent employee, literally eliminates one of the hidden cost of maintaining a permanent employee, if they need to become unemployed for some reason.
Logical I guess, for employers who need to operate lean and mean and not pay unemployment taxes on earned wages, therefore, also not have to worry about whether an ex-worker gets benefits, or not.
But what about the temporary staffing agency, or contractor who supplies a business, or even governmental agency with workers? Of course they do .. because you are their employee.
A new term has been coined just for temp/contracted employees. It might even help explain the indifference that drives me up a wall, of MANY staffing agency’s, and contractors .. at least when it comes to their frequent treatment of unemployment claims filed by temporarily out of work temp workers, who are still, at-will employees with employee rights,
“On Demand Workers”.
Mischaracterization of the Cause Or Why Your’re Unemployed
So .. asking questions about whether a temp employee can get unemployment benefits has a few wrinkles to iron out .. and that might be the reason why you are now wondering why your employer has mischaracterized the actual cause for your separation, as a voluntary quit, or a refusal of continuing suitable work .. or even a discharge for misconduct.
If you are a temp employee, or maybe the employee of a contractor, such as when government entities privatize critical functions of the government because it lowers the costs of being the direct employer, it’s best you accept a fact about who you really work for, or the employer who pays UI tax on your wages.
You might even be working for they type of industry employer who was one of the reasons why states and the DOL, cracked down with SUTA dumping laws. (If you think you pay unemployment taxes out of your wages .. think again, unless you work in Alaska, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania.)
I get that government is not above misleading the public, when they promote some of the things they do as being beneficial for those who work, but if you think unemployment laws regarding SUTA’s were passed to benefit unemployed people whose employers were brazen enough to avoid paying unemployment taxes .. think again.
State and Federal unemployment agencies had to do something about employers who exploited a loophole to avoid paying UI taxes, because how else could a state ever recover the benefits temp employees should be paid .. through a higher UI tax paid by employers .. which in turn, affected how close a state general UI fund .. might of came to hitting it’s insolvency trigger.
But, as they say, when one door closes to hurt business’s ability to keep close it doors .. lobby to stay open some other way.
And special voluntary quit provision applied only to temp, and some contract based workers can be used and abused too .. if the goal is to deny temp workers unemployment benefits.
From the perspective of unemployment benefits, there is no other type of employer, more given to mischaraterizing the cause for a separation than a temp agency ..
At least this is my experience .. My experience as a permanent employee including dealing with temp employer clients, and the last three years .. well I was still the same hearing coordinator but I was also an employee of a temp agency.
Believe me .. my experience did nothing to change my opinion that “Dave”, a small temp agency owner, who ended up being President was an OVER THE TOP misrepresentation of what temp agencies, at least those who fight all unemployment claims do in reality.
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