Legal Question in Employment Law in Florida
During my last week of work with a Florida company I was paid regular pay for half of the week and accrued pto for the other half. On Friday of that week I was told that I was laid off. When I first spoke to the Florida Unemployment Commission to file a claim, I was told that I am not required to claim the pto time but when I spoke to them a second time a week later I was told that I DO have to claim the pto time. I have scoured the Florida Unemployment statutes but cannot find anything stating exactly what I do and do not have to claim. I do not wish to file a false claim but I also do not want to lose benefits that I am entitled to. Can someone please point me in the right direction?
Thank You.
1 Answer from Attorneys
I am speaking only from experience, and not from a read of the statutes. When you file the unemployment claim, it asks for any "other" compensation you have received at termination of employment (I claimed my severance pay in the "other" catagory). It also gives you a blank to explain what the "other" pay is. I think pto pay is actually wages, and it is just a matter of how your employer chose to classify your pay on the books. If you received all the pay together in one check, you should probably report it to unemployment as wages. If not, you should probably put in "other" compensation and explain.
P.S. Claiming my severance check as "other" compensation did not affect my unemployment compensation (neither in the time to receive it nor in the amount they sent me).
Again, I speak only from experience and general reasoning, and not from the perspective of an employment law expert.
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