Legal Question in Employment Law in California
I am filing a claim with the California EDD that will be heard by an administrative law judge.
The following issues will be considered at the hearing: 1256 - did the claimant voluntarily leave most recent employment without good cause.
1030/32 should the employer's reserve account be charged for any benefits paid to the claimant.
I quit after one and a half years at this business. I am claiming that it was an abusive atmosphere where the owner continually harassed and badgered me. She appears to have an imbalance, and has a penchant for writing her employees up for silly things, for example, I wrote a note on a phone pad which caused a forty five minute tirade on her part - for wasting a piece of note paper. She had the event written up, she keeps track of things like this. I was forced to sign several such silly write-ups, so I imagine she will have a rather large folder with such nonsense.
Her regular outbursts cause disruption in the workplace for everyone since it is such a small business making productivity challenging at best. No one escapes her wrath.
Finally my pay was reduced. My workload was increased. After her final tirade where she reduced my pay, I felt there was no place for me at the company and put in my resignation and have filed for unemployment benefits while I look for new employment.
Further, I was never paid overtime, instead they had a policy where they put the overtime hours worked into a PTO account where time-off was accrued but not paid time and a half for - I am planning to file a complaint regarding this issue with the labor board.
My question is how to present my information to show that the workplace was intolerable and that a reasonable person would not continue employment in this environment. By the way, there was a turnover of three persons the day I put in my resignation, that is three people out of 8 people at the company decided to leave because of the environment.
Please advise if it is worth my while to pursue this or if I should drop it.
Thank you for your time.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Although generally a voluntary resignation bars an individual for receiving unemployment benefits, there are exceptions, some of which you have noted. If you can prove that there were Labor Code violations, that there was a substantial downgrade in your pay, and the employer was abusive, resulting in an oppressive work environment, you should qualify for benefits, as you would be considered as having quit for good cause.
A great way to prove that management was abusive and created an oppressive environment would be bringing other employees who resigned due to the abusive/oppressive environment as witnesses. I would also bring pay stubs evidencing the significant pay reduction.
It is absolutely worth pursuing. EDD tends to deny benefits to anyone who has a questionable claim. Your hearing will be before an administrative law judge who is not affiliated with EDD, and you will have an opportunity to present the evidence that perhaps EDD refused to listen to.
I represent a lot of clients at these hearings, and the decision of the judge is often favorable for the claimant.
DISCLAIMER: This response is for informational purposes only and does not form an attorney-client relationship. It represents only the educated opinion of the author. It should not be relied upon as legal advice. The response is based on the limited facts provided, and might change given additional or different facts.
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