(Missouri)
My company is closing this sales office. The owner wants me to take a $3.00 to $4.00 per hour CUT in pay, take the business to my home and work from there. I live in a 2 bedroom mobile home, I have a 12 year old son who is out of school for the summer at home. I do not have the room to set up an office in my home, nor do I have a telephone or internet which is a necessity to run this telemarketing business from my home. Will I lose my unemployment benefits if I do not accept this offer?
Hi Anonymous,
It’s definitely a change in the conditions of employment and substantial changes MAY be good cause for quitting, but I can’t give you a yes or no answer.
Missouri is an “attorney state”. What this means is that you don’t necessarily have to have an attorney for an unemployment hearing, but if you hire someone to help you .. they must be an attorney. There’s only a handful of states where this holds true including WV, SC, SD, MO, KS, and a couple other which require the rep have a “supervisory” letter from an attorney. Of course a person still needs to check their state’s rules and procedures for variances.
Since these states are attorney states .. I simply do not know as much about them.
My instinct is to tell you not to quit, but to ask a Missouri attorney whether the changes are substantial enough to “refuse the offer”.
You might also pay a visit to this Missouri attorney’s website. It’s a great site and is specifically for Missouri residents and he seems to be an advocate for employees.