Legal Question in Employment Law in Massachusetts
Unemployment eligibility
If my company is restructuring pay so as to cut my base salary in half, and
I don't want to accept the pay cut, do I have to quit, or do they have to lay
me off (for not being able to pay to our original agreement). The reason
for asking this question is to determine whether or not I would be eligible
for unemployment insurance if I didn't want to accept the pay cut.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Unemployment eligibility
If you were an at-will employee, the only argument you could make is an implied contract - and that's a tough argument. At-will employees can be fored at any time for any reason - and the terms of their employment can be changed at any time for any reason. If it was a written offer/contract, you might have a good argument. In addition, if the company is having financial problems, you run the risk of getting a judgment against a company that could never pay it.
You can get unemployment compensation if they change the terms and conditions of your employment to a degree that you cannot work under those conditions. Changing pay can be a change in the terms and conditions, provided that the change in pay is significant.
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