Fighting unemployment claims

jgarr4

Can anyone point me in the right direction to find an explanation of how failure to fight unemployment claims can increase company costs?

joannie

I don't know about Louisiana, but in Oklahoma the compensation rate is based on the amount of unemployment claims paid out to the company's ex-employees. Generally, if an employee files for unemployment and the company doesn't protest, they receive the compensation. Our practice is to protest all unemployment claims unless we have had a lay-off.

Dutch2

Yep, same here. We make it a point to protest every unemployment claim. Chances are....the more you pay out in claims the higher your rates will be.
After years of doing this, you can pretty much tell which ones you can win and which ones you can't, but we protest anyway. The ex-employee is always very surprised to see you if you show up for the interview, if it gets that far...
Good luck

stilldazed

Agree with other posters, and protest every one. You'll win some and lose some, but you'll send a good message to the exworker (and potentially others), you'll fulfill your responsibility to your organization to minimize cost as much as possible, and you'll get good practice and learn a lot.

best wishes.

SMace

In all of our states they calculate our unemployment insurance "premuim" based on how much unemployment we have. You should call your local Employment Commission (the ESC around here) and ask them how yours calculated.

Susan in La

In Louisiana you pay a percentage of your payroll in unemployment taxes based on the number of claims sucessfully filed against you. This applies to private sector employers. Public sector employers pay a reimbursable account, they only pay what is drawn against them.

HRQ

AZ is pretty employee friendly, not employer friendly.

Essentially, if the employee lost their job through no fault of their own, they will receive benefits.

We are careful to document discussions about policy violations or performance issues, so if a termination eventually occurs, we can demonstrate that the employee knew or should have known that their employment would be terminated for continued problems.

Exceptions to this can be attendance. Even if an employee is chronically tardy or absent, if they can show it's not their "fault" then they may receive benefits. For example, they rely on another for a ride and that person is not reliable. Stupid, yes, but we've lost claims like this.

We also train and train and train supervisors to keep a stack of voluntary resignation forms handy at all times. Sad, but true. If an employee is quitting and there's no saving them (or we don't want to save them) the supervisor whips out the resignation form and asks the employee to complete one. Those always help.

Employees will sometimes "try to get fired" so they can get unemployment. If we can prove they were fired for something under their own control, then no bene's for them.

Control what you CAN control:
- document all disciplinary discussions, always have a witness present, always ask for signatures or document when the employee refuses to sign.
- make clear, in writing, that continued violations will result in disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment. (I think I repeat this phrase in my sleep...)
- train supervisors to get resignations in writing whenever possible
- publish your grievance policy and remind employees of it regularly.
- train your supervisors on the grievance policy and make sure it's followed.
- respond to every inquiry from your unemployment office. Failure to respond or responding late usually means you will lose, unless the employee is an idiot.

Some people will get benefits even when you think it's ridiculous, but doing the above will make a big difference, and makes the occasional "loss" less painful. Over the past six years, I reduced our rate from 1.2 to .02. Can't do it myself, it was accomplished by training until I thought I couldn't stand it any more, and getting buy in from line supervisors. Believe me, they usually HATE seeing former employees get benefits.

I don't know about other states, but I'm pretty happy with our progress.

AJ SPHR

I guess it's just me, but I do not exert an extreme effort to fight unemployment claims. Our rate is state mandated with an experience modifier but is relatively low. The time and effort involved in some instances to fight an unemployment claim is just not important to me or my employer when there are other more important things to do. And, the one time I did not agree with someone filing for UC, all I did was my required employer response and the UC office actually denied it. The applicant appealed it, I did not attend the hearing but let them decide on the information I had already provided and UC affirmed their initial denial. I was initially emotional about fighting this tooth and nail, but was glad I did not and let the UC office make their determination so that it was their decision. Never heard from that ex-employee again.