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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Posts
    1

    Default Qualifying for Unemployment After Being Terminated for Tardiness

    My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Arizona.

    I worked for a call center for 3 years and the first year was full-time and the following 2 years were part time for school. I was in a car accident in April of '14 and missed work for doctor visits. I think they accumulated points against me even though I was given doctors notes to miss work.

    Fast forward to August of '14 & I found out I am pregnant. I would be tardy or miss work time to time & had been given a few doctors notes to miss work and given a doctors note to take unscheduled breaks to use the restroom. But there were times I was tardy or had just called out due to severe nausea & could not perform my duties as a call center rep. I can also recall twice where I didn't call in because I was throwing up and was so weak I actually fell asleep next to the toilet.

    I still have bad morning sickness & take meds for it but it doesn't always help and sometime in Feb I was put on a written warning and told not to miss or be late anymore. I was a tardy a few more times because of school and morning sickness and was told to go home once because I threw up on the call floor/my desk. So the first wednesday of March I was put on a final warning and that following friday I was 5 min late because someone was sitting in my assigned seat and I had to find another seat.

    The following Monday I worked my regular 4 hour shift without being late and at the end of my shift they took me to an office and fired me because I was late the past Friday. I was not the only person put on a final but I know two others who were late while on a final for more than an hour & they were not fired but I was for 5 minutes.

    I was told I did not qualify for FMLA by a lower level supervisor not our HR department but I read that FMLA is available if you've been with a company for over a year (which I was) or if you've accumulated enough hours. Also I feel they did something that was not right because I know other part time agents who went to school and only had to submit their school schedule once at the beginning of the semester and I did that as well but I was always asked to do it a 2nd time half way thru the semester and I had to print copies of my dad's Visa card receipts that he actually had paid for my school when others never had to show proof school was paid for and this happened for 3 semesters.

    Do you think I'd win unemployment?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    24,521

    Default Re: Qualifying for Unemployment After Being Terminated for Tardiness

    Best way to find out is to apply. There is no penalty for being wrong and the worst thing that can happen is that they say no, in which case you're no worse off than if you never applied in the first place.

    I don't have time right now to address the other things in your post - will be back tonight.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Florida
    Posts
    2,344

    Default Re: Qualifying for Unemployment After Being Terminated for Tardiness

    I know nothing of Arizona, but in Florida you would likely qualify for unemployment benefits. While employment is "at will", allowing an employer to terminate for not reason at all, qualifying for unemployment benefits is an entirely different analysis based on state law. It is not determined by termination by the employer over minor infractions.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    1,360

    Default Re: Qualifying for Unemployment After Being Terminated for Tardiness

    Quote Quoting Miss_Linda
    View Post
    Do you think I'd win unemployment?
    No, because there is too much going on, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try, but know what you're up against.

    Quote Quoting Miss_Linda
    View Post
    the following 2 years were part time for school.
    This and your pregnancy will be real problems. Because of a news story about people collecting benefits while not "able and available," the UI people started scrubbing their records against school, hospital, jail, and prison records. If they get a hit, they will be contacting you to determine your eligibility.

    AZ requires that you be available and look for FULL-TIME work. We have no part-time exception so unless you can do that, even if you get benefits because of the separation issue, you'll be denied because you can't meet the full-time work requirement.

    Then you have the school issue. There is an exception for students that have worked full-time in the past 9 months and didn't ever ask to have their schedules modified because of school, but I suspect you are in school during the hours of 8 am to 5 pm, and this exception won't be available to you and neither will the "I will quit school to accept full-time work if offered" because your past 2 years of work history won't support that conclusion, but you can still say it.

    AZ changed it's monetary eligibility formula. https://www.azdes.gov/main.aspx?menu=317&id=4245 If you didn't earn at least $3139.50 in your high wage quarter which would mean that you'd have to earn about $12/hour working a 20 hour week. You won't be eligibile no matter what. The change effectly barred all the low-paid, part-time workers in the state from ever getting UI.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    24,521

    Default Re: Qualifying for Unemployment After Being Terminated for Tardiness

    It's not, working there a year OR having the requisite hours; it's working there a year AND having the requisite hours. FMLA applies when ALL of the following are true:

    1.) Your employer has 50 or more employees within 75 miles of your location
    2.) You have worked for the employer for 12 months or more
    3.) In the 12 months immediately preceding your leave, you worked a minimum of 1,250 hours
    4.) You or a qualified dependent/beneficiary have a serious health condition as defined by the statute.

    If even one of the above criteria is not met, FMLA does not apply.

    A doctor's note is not a get out of jail free card. If FMLA does not apply (and it is not at all clear whether it does or not) then you could have a note signed by the Surgeon General of the United States and it would not be illegal for them to hold those absences against you. If FMLA does apply, then you are entitled to a total of 12 weeks per 12 month period, not 12 weeks per condition.

    Missing work or being late to work for reasons related to school does not provide you with any protections whatsoever.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Posts
    1,142

    Default Re: Qualifying for Unemployment After Being Terminated for Tardiness

    Please, no matter what it seems to be, go on and appy for unemployment benefits. Even if you have availability issues right now, you might be able to set up a claim based on your monetary eligibility if it is there, and that claim will be in place for a year from the date you file it. At any time later in the year if your circumstances change, you might be able to reopen your claim and use it while you are actually able available and seeking work.

    If you do not have the monetary eligibility, let the AZ system be the ones who tell you this. Anytime you are terminated, file that claim. A doctor's note for the last absence or tardy situation would be helpful in allowing you to qualify for unemployment benefits, though it does not sound as though you would have one, since as I'm reading it, the reason for your last tardiness was for someone else being in your seat. But it also does not sound as though you were terminated immediately after this last tardy event occurred anyway. Go on and file the unemployment claim and let them sort out your monetary, eligibility and availability issues. It costs nothing, and there is no downside except using a little of your time to do it, even if you turn out not to be eligible.

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