Can I Get Unemployment if I Refuse a New Contract With Different Commissions
My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Pennsylvania
I work in advertising sales. It is my first year and I was given a 1 year contract offering mostly salary with some commission if my baseline sales requirements are met. I am approaching the end of my year of work an there is a rumor that the next contract I will be offered is going to be only commission and no salary which worries me about how I might pay my monthly bills. If I don't sign on the new and different contract they might ask me to sign, would I still qualify for unemployment benefits?
Thank you in advance for your help.
Re: Would I Qualify for Unemployment Compensation If
The best I can offer you is a cautious - maybe. PA is kind of weird about benefits for reductions in wages or hours.
You might. You might not. But to maximize your chances if you decide to quit, DO NOT WORK ONE SINGLE HOUR under the new contract. I am absolutely not guaranteeing that as long as you do not work at the new contract, you will definitely get benefits - it is by no means certain that you will.
But if you work at the new contract AT ALL, your chances of collecting unemployment, not overly high to start with, plummets to zero.
Re: Would I Qualify for Unemployment Compensation If
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cbg
The best I can offer you is a cautious - maybe. PA is kind of weird about benefits for reductions in wages or hours.
You might. You might not. But to maximize your chances if you decide to quit, DO NOT WORK ONE SINGLE HOUR under the new contract. I am absolutely not guaranteeing that as long as you do not work at the new contract, you will definitely get benefits - it is by no means certain that you will.
But if you work at the new contract AT ALL, your chances of collecting unemployment, not overly high to start with, plummets to zero.
If the contract expires, what is the difference between them firing me, or making me sign a new contract under any terms they demand?!?
I guess I'm just taken back by what may come next month. Thank you for your reply and advice.
Re: Would I Qualify for Unemployment Compensation If
If they offer you a contract and you refuse it, the argument can be made that they did not fire you and in fact offered you work, which you refused.
Re: Would I Qualify for Unemployment Compensation If
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cbg
If they offer you a contract and you refuse it, the argument can be made that they did not fire you and in fact offered you work, which you refused.
That is a good point.
I hope they just offer me a renewal of the contract I have this year.
Thank you for your help
Re: Would I Qualify for Unemployment Compensation If
The argument that you were offered "new" work is valid. The thing is that a refusal of work has many more loopholes to obtain benefits. To further improve your chances of getting UI, say that you were "fired/discharged" when you applied because it's true. Your contract ended. Then on your first claim form, you check the "did you refuse any work" box. That way you are in no way committing fraud.
CBG is so right about not working under the new terms. In your case, you had a chance to think about it, you'll have to sign a new agreement, and once you do that, you can't go to UI and say, "I changed my mind. This commission only structure was too much of a cut in pay." The UI system doesn't protect you when you've negotiated the agreement, but it might be there when the employer tries to make you take something you don't want.
Re: Would I Qualify for Unemployment Compensation If
A contract ending is not a firing.
You can bet that if an employer receives a notice of an unemployment claim for someone who was offered and refused a contract, and that person is saying they did not refuse any work, the employer is going to tell the unemployment office about it loudly and in no uncertain terms. I'm not going so far as to call it fraud but there's no way that's going to go unnoticed.
Re: Would I Qualify for Unemployment Compensation If
Not in the strickest sense, but I lived that nightmare of thinking I quit, when in the UI world it was a firing and a refusal of work. Let the employer protest on that basis, but if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't have written a letter of resignation, I would have just said, "I'm refusing your offer of continued employment in the poor substitute of a job you're offering." I would have submitted my UI paperwork as a discharge and a refusal of work, and had I done that, it might have spared me waiting 363 days to get my first UI check.
Re: Would I Qualify for Unemployment Compensation If