Chances of Winning an Unemployment Insurance Appeal

[bigmatt]

My question involves unemployment benefits for the state of: Indiana
I worked for a company for 10 1/2 years. My job was and is scheduled as a 8 hour per day job, M thru F. Gradually my job went from working 37 - 40 hours per week to working 55- 60 hours per week with no official justification, just to "wait for the light at the end of the tunnel". I was expected to be available to work anytime from 630 AM to 830 PM six days a week without notice. PS - I was not a fireman, policeman, doctor, etc. I worked these extended hours for the past 3 years, hoping to ride the storm out and that the job would return to the scheduled 8 hours. But it did not and doesn't look like it ever will.
I have two young children, my wife works(occasionally nights & weekends) and we pay for after school care and all day care in the summer. My employer also wanted me to have child care for the evenings and weekends in case they needed me to work. I feel this is unreasonable to ask of someone.
One Friday I was told at 430 pm that I was to work the next day without exception, but I could not. I felt I had no choice but to quit, if not, I feel I would have been fired for insubordination, which I was never insubordinate.Obviously I feel I was justified, but...
I filed for UI but was denied. What are my chances of winning my appeal and are there any suggestions as how to handle it.
Thanks
Ps -this company has a history of abusing their employees and has lost lawsuits in other states over there unfair treatment.

[cbg]

Quite frankly, your chances of winning on appeal are not very good. Quitting because you don't like the hours is not generally a qualifying reason.

You would have been better off finding a new job first and then quitting.

[Papermate922]

Paraphrasing from a UI help pamphlet:

If an employer makes big changes in your job (duties, hours, pay, benefits)you may be eligible for UI. I think day care issues, however, are personal reasons and not job related and not "good cause" for quitting.

Did you try and work out the schedule issue? Do you have documentation? Witnesses? It seems that if the employer acted unreasonably, you may be able to make a convincing argument that the unknown work schedule was unreasonable to any employee - let alone someone with children.

If you quit in a huff, you could also argue you had no intention of quitting - you need to convince UI quitting was an emotional reaction to unreasonable work conditions. Did you try and get your job back? Maybe there are legitimate reasons why you didn't or couldn't? You can not win any appeal if you do not appeal. An appeal costs nothing. You don't need an UI attorney unless you have cash to pay for one. Find an experienced paralegal. Just be honest and get the documentation to the hearing officer before the hearing. If the company has a bad track record, get the documentation. You can win. Good Luck!

[bigmatt]

Thanks for the advice. The thing with the hours was this, the company was under staffed and not hiring to fill the gaps. So they expected me to show up at 700 normally, and work until they told me I could go home. My job scheduled me to work until 400 pm, but after I finished my specific job, they would have me do the work that they didn't have any persons for. So I never knew when I would get off work until 5 minutes before., it could be 5 or 6 or 7 or 8. The only thing I was sure of was they I could not bust 13 hours in one day due to INDOT regulations.

[bigmatt]

Sorry, one more thing. My employer also changed my duties. I was a courier who had an area to cover, and due to the staff shortage, they just decided to increase my area, making it impossible for me to finish with in my scheduled hours.

[cbg]

Changing your duties is not illegal.

The problem with Papermate's suggestion is that the "change" was made some time ago. If they had JUST increased your hours then I'll give you a maybe on "big changes in your job". But you worked the increased hours for sometime. From the UI persective, the new hours were acceptable to you since you worked them for some time. That's not, quitting because of a major change.

[Papermate922]

I did see that the scheduling conditions were not new and had existed for some time; however, since it was unacceptable to the employee, I mentioned that perhaps he had made some complaints about the change of schedule to management and perhaps management advised it was temporary so things would change soon...possibly the employee hung in there waiting for the change that never occurred (like a good employee). Bottom line is, the employer's decision to expect round the clock availability for their own selfish economic benefit when the job was originally a 9-5 job may be considered a change...all things considered. It doesn't cost anything to make your case in an appeal.