My question involves unemployment benefits for the state of: California. I was fired for cause. I lied on my application stating I'd never been convicted of a felony. Had my employer asked for a background check, I would have disclosed the felonies however, the collection agency that hired me, didn't do background or drug testing on any new hires. I turned in a rental application to rent a house from a property management company we did collections for. When they ran my background, they called my employer and told him about my felonies (a second question could be did the property management company violate my right to privacy by calling my employer). He then checked my application and I was fired. I applied for UE benefits and was denied. I was reading the criteria that has to be met for a claim to be denied and it appears (to me) that all criteria have not been met specifically would what I did (lied) tend to injure my employer. I don't think it would have. Had the property management company not called, it likely wouldn't have come out and it would have been business as usual. The collection agency I worked for didn't do background checks...if they were that worried about someone's background, wouldn't they run one? Also, they knew about this for 2 days before they fired me...if they were that concerned about it, wouldn't they have fired me immediately? And lastly, if they were that concerned about consumer's personal information, they wouldn't leave the back door of their building unlocked during business hours where anyone could walk in and do whatever. I was an Account Executive not a collector so my job had nothing to do with consumer information. What I am wondering is should I appeal the EDD denial or would it be a waste of my time? Thanks

