My Former Employer is Making a Second Appeal

[LAgirl87]

My question involves unemployment benefits for the state of: California

So I quit my job at Vans because my hours had been cut to the point where I had maybe 1 real shift and 1 call in which was just not worth it for someone my age (22) who has bills to pay.
When I filed for unemployment originally they approved of this reasoning and i got my benefits. Then Vans tried challenging this decision i had my checks stopped and another interview. EDD found me to be in the right and continued my checks. Now I got a letter from EDD office saying that Vans is now appealing the decision and I pretty much have to go to court.

I've never been in the situation and I'm not good in these situations. Will this be hard to win? What should I do? Will the Vans representative try hard to win or are they just trying to show that they tried to go to court like it saw on another document?

I hate this! Someone if you have any answers or useful information I'd be VERY appreciated.

[cbg]

Quite frankly, I'm not surprised. I'd be appealing too if an employee who quit was applying for unemployment benefits. Unemployment is generally reserved for those who lost their job through no fault of their own. That does not generally include quitting.

Unemployment is tricky when it comes to hours reduction. In some states, they'd prefer you to be working SOME hours rather than NO hours, and while they'll pay partial benefits when your hours are cut IF you stay on the job, they won't pay when you quit. In other states they'll pay a benefit if your hours are cut by x percent, with x varying by state; however in many of those cases the benefit is lower than if you'd stayed on the job even with the hours reduction. If you have been getting a benefit from UI that is more than you were making when you were working, believe me, you are one of a very small minority.

There's no way for us to tell what the employer will do. I will tell you that it is not easy to get or maintain benefits if you quit.

[aman9]

its you against corporations... well ill be going up against mines in a few days...

[LAgirl87]

Quite frankly, I'm not surprised. I'd be appealing too if an employee who quit was applying for unemployment benefits. Unemployment is generally reserved for those who lost their job through no fault of their own. That does not generally include quitting.

Unemployment is tricky when it comes to hours reduction. In some states, they'd prefer you to be working SOME hours rather than NO hours, and while they'll pay partial benefits when your hours are cut IF you stay on the job, they won't pay when you quit. In other states they'll pay a benefit if your hours are cut by x percent, with x varying by state; however in many of those cases the benefit is lower than if you'd stayed on the job even with the hours reduction. If you have been getting a benefit from UI that is more than you were making when you were working, believe me, you are one of a very small minority.

There's no way for us to tell what the employer will do. I will tell you that it is not easy to get or maintain benefits if you quit.

Yeah well thats the thing I make more now with my unemployment then I did when I was employed...I made approximately MAYBE $100 every 2 week paycheck maybe $130 at most (I made $8.00 an hour and the most hours I ever got were 20 hours but by the time I quit I got 5 real hours a week and 5 possible call in hours) this is considering I had be employed with this company for 1 year.

[cbg]

Then, as I said, you are part of a very tiny minority.

Whether the benefit approval will be overturned on appeal is not something anyone here can anticipate, as the crystal ball is broken. For the same reason we have no way of knowing how hard your employer will fight. But I would venture to guess that they would not have filed a second appeal if they did not intend to pursue it. There is no "other document" that would show (or care) how hard they fought the claim.

[PattyPA]

Your benefit amount is based on the first four of the last five completed quarters following the quarter in which you opened the initial claim. So, if you opened the claim between July 1 and current this year, the wages considered were the ones reports for earnings from April 1, 2008 through March 31, 2009.