What are my chances on winning and appeal after i’ve already been granted benefits?`

Ok so i worked for this employer for 7 yrs. Never got promoted cause I have a disability not being able to stand long periods. I always provided a dr note. So my employer finally found a reason to get rid of me. At my job I was able to go in the computer and edit my timeclock. After editing it it was emailed to the manager and supervisor for approval. I guess I made a mistake and gave myself and extra hour, I dont really remember doing it. Anyways they didnt ask for a statement till 2 weeks after the fact. Afterwards I went through and corrected it and they didnt turn me into hr till 2 weeks after that. So they didnt fired me till over a month later. And the girl that wrote a statement on me got promoted to my position the following day. I applied for unemployment and was granted benefits. And now I find out they appealed it after 2 months of recieving benefits. What are my chances of winning the appeal? I talked to unemployment and they said its in my favor cause the investigator said it was and honest mistake and thats why i was granted benefits.

Let we provide some terms used by unemployment people to describe a reason many employers chosse to fire an employee an employee.

An isolated error error.

An error made in good faith.

A one time occurrence of an error made in good faith.

What do all these things have in common.

They lack a willfulness, intention, culpability, repeated negligence of misconduct.

I suppose they called it time theft.

A one time occurrence of a mistake made on a timecard would generally not be enough to prove misconduct.

Additionally, if another employer ever made the same mistake .. and wasn’t fired and you could prove that .. the employer would be seen to not uniformly enforce the policy that says termination is called for.

If you have a disability .. and the employer treated you “special” it could also be seen as a form of discriminatory retaliation.

But of course this is all generalization based upon the information I had to go on.

Comments for What are my chances on winning and appeal after i’ve already been granted benefits?`

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Oct 09, 2010
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Hearing

by: Anonymous

So I had my unemployment and the employer submitted no new documentation. They had the handbook receipt I signed but not the actual policy. They lied about what time I walked out when I forgot to clock out that day. They told the officer I left at 7:50 but the termination form said 8:09. They said they had a tape of me leaving at 7:50. They said I got compensated for that extra hour and I never did. The officer asked why they would approve that hour and they said payroll automatically approves it. I told the officer that was a complete lie. And they didn’t even submit documentation of the previous write up and it didn’t get brought up. At one point the manager on the phone said she was on vacation and thats why she didn’t watch the tape.
The only thing they had was the handbook reciept and timeclock that I messed up on. But then it showed that I went back and corrected it. I told the officer it was and honest mistake and I went back and corrected it as soon as they confronted me about it. She caught them in about 3 lies. What do you think my chances are that I won or lost this case? I’m so nervous about this cause they tried to make me look really bad.

I am not going to tell you what I think your chances are .. what I think is irrelevant. I will tell you that without previous warnings nor testimony about previous warnings .. it starts to look better. It allows for a finding of a one time inadvertent error that does not rise to a level considered misconduct.

But you should come back and let the other unemployed people that poke around this website know how it turns out for you.

The language and findings of facts and the conclusion of a decision is very important well.

I’m thinking of beginning a section on this site for people to do just that. Share their hearing decisions.

Sep 24, 2010
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Policy

by: Anonymous

The policy says they can fire me on the spot. All the statement says is what time I walked out of the building at. Unemployment says they have to prove it was malicious.And it wasn’t even an hour it was 45 mins.

Sep 22, 2010
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Replying back

by: Anonymous

I got written up for this mistake before that’s what I’m worried about, twice I think. But one of my friends that work there made the same mistake and they didn’t fire her. And I thought
Maybe I would have a chance cause they took so long to fire me. And promoted the a girl that wrote a statement against
me. And it has to get approved by them so why would I steal and hr. And a few weeks before they fired me they pulled me in the office and were yelling at me cause I couldn’t stand and said maybe I should part ways with them cause maybe this wasn’t the job for me. And they said they were going to be watching me for the next 2 weeks and fired me shortly after.

Is it possible we should talk about what is contained in the statement?

You might try using a defense that even the employer might have condoned this act given that they allowed a month to pass before terminating you.

I can’t really know if you are beyond help without having full disclosure here ..

I think I’m missing a big part of the puzzle .. namely the employer’s policy on this rule violation.

I also unclear as to why the co-workers promotion has anything to do with why you fired. I understand why a statement written by her might .. but her promotion?