Legal Question in Employment Law in California

i manage a small family business. recently we had to reduce the hours of an employee. she said she probably wouldn't be able to make do on just 3 days, and asked if we could lay her off instead of her quiting, so that she could receive unemployment benefits. having never had to deal with this situation, i said yes. it wasn't until later that we realized that giving someone unemployment will raise our payroll taxes from here on out. is it too late to take back the offer of laying her off?


Asked on 2/15/10, 1:34 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
C. Coulter Mulvihill Cynthia Coulter Mulvihill, Esq.

Actually, California's EDD considers a substantial reduction in compensation a good reason for an employee to quit a job, and still receive unemployment benefits.

Here is a website that explains when a California employee is entitled to voluntarily quit, and still receive unemployment: http://www.edd.ca.gov/UIBDG/Voluntary_Quit_VQ_500.htm

Your employee would have been entitled to benefits anyway.

By the way, California's EDD has a little-known workshare program (http://www.edd.ca.gov/pdf_pub_ctr/de8714bb.pdf) that allows employees to collect partial unemployment because of a partial layoff. That might be an option for your company.

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Answered on 2/22/10, 9:29 pm


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