wrongful discharge and unemployment compensation?
My husband was terminated without notice today because they have accused him of changing settings on a computer and causing the computer to crash. They have three people willing to say he did it. However, all the computers were working during his night shift and when he left, and several people came in for the next two shifts. Any of them could have actually done it, and several of them have downloaded and used pornography and games to the extent that internet capabilities had to be removed from the computers. My husband is a scapegoat in this incident.
They are threatening to contest unemployment, have cut off our medical and dental insurance immediately. Do we have any recourse?
Answers (1)
Normally employees tend to have the advantage in unemployment cases. Under Sec. 602, the employer can challenge unemployment on the basis of misconduct. Misconduct is defined as either 1) a violation of some policy which costs the company money; or 2) multiple violations of a company policy after being warned. The burden is on the employer. If the employer has three people willing to testify that your husband changed the settings, then it is going to be a difficult case. We would have to discredit all three of them. Another line of attach however would be to show that the company did not lose any money by this act, or that there was no policy against changing the settings. But because the policy does not have to be written, this can still be difficult. Do you have any witnesses who can show that he could not have done it? That would certainly help. As for the insurance, they should offer him COBRA benefits. They would keep the insurance going for I believe up to 18 months, but he would have to pay the company the insurance premiums. You should probably contact an employment attorney like us or any of the other fine lawyers listed on this site.
Aaron Maduff
posted by Aaron Maduff | Mar 22, 2004 6:09 PM [EST]
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