Legal Question in Employment Law in Maryland

You were not approved by your employer and then your employer appealed. Instead, you were approved by the State of Maryland and then your employer appealed the State's decision to award you unemployment benefits.

The reason your employer is appealing is very simple -- under Maryland law, you are not entitled to unemployment benefits if you were FIRED FOR CAUSE. You are only entitled to unemployment benefits if you were "laid off", for instance because your employer did not have enough work for you and they needed to cut back on their work force.

Stated another way, if you were fired because you couldn't get yourself to work on time (REGARDLESS OF THE REASON), then you will not get unemployment benefits. Why should you? Your employer hired you to do a job during certain hours and if you couldn't cut it, that's no one's fault but your own. The employer should not have to pay for your benefits when you didn't do the job. Conversely, if you were laid off for a reason NOT related to your work performance, you will likely win the appeal and get your unemployment benefits.

You will likely have a phone interview with a representative of the State of Maryland to determine WHY you were let go. If you admit that you were late and give the State some excuse about having morning sickness due to pregnancy and taking xanax and confirm that's the reason you were fired, you will likely not receive unemployment benefits. Do you see where I'm going with this?

Although you didn't ask about this in your question, you should go to the following website and see whether your employer may have discriminated against you by firing you due to your pregnancy related issues. Consult a Maryland lawyer if you have any questions.

http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/pregnancy.cfm

Best of luck.*****The above is for informational purposes only and does not create an attorney-client privilege.******