Any labor lawyers out there?

[Wagon_Master]

Here's the gig. I work for a small co., less than 12 employees. we recently had our hours cut to 24 per week because we have very little work and none on the horizon. I took this time to look in to a new career truck driving, something I have been kicking around for a while. I got "pre-hired" with a real good company but it is conditional on me passing CDL school. I do not have the money to go to school so I applied for a grant. The money is there for the grant but I must be "unemployed" to get it. I went in today to talk with the owner of the company about laying me off and it did not go as expected. We have 4 guys in the shop and only enough work for 2 and that is only some of the time. Most of the man hours are spent just hanging around. When I asked her to lay me off she said she would not because she did not want her unemployment insurance to go up, this I do not understand. Would she rather pay people to do nothing than have her UI go up? apparently so. I have talked to people that have been there longer than me that have said they swept the floor for months. I don't want to sweep the floor for 24hrs a week I want to better myself.

WHAT CAN I DO????

 

[deepsouthshooter]

First, nothing contained in this response should be construed as legal advice and I am not a licensed attorney.

Second, is there a reason that you don't simply quit the job?

If you are requesting that your employer "lay you off" so that you can potentially obtain unemployment benefits while accepting a grant for re-education that requires the recipient to be unemployed as one of the terms for eligibility, there could be more at issue than a UI premium increase.

Third, how does the entity issuing the grant define unemployment? Is it possible that it is not a "pure" definition whereby part-time employment does not serve as an automatic exclusion?

Just some thoughts.

Best of luck!

DSS

 

[Wagon_Master]

First, nothing contained in this response should be construed as legal advice and I am not a licensed attorney.

Second, is there a reason that you don't simply quit the job?

If you are requesting that your employer "lay you off" so that you can potentially obtain unemployment benefits while accepting a grant for re-education that requires the recipient to be unemployed as one of the terms for eligibility, there could be more at issue than a UI premium increase.

Third, how does the entity issuing the grant define unemployment? Is it possible that it is not a "pure" definition whereby part-time employment does not serve as an automatic exclusion?

Just some thoughts.

Best of luck!

DSS

The purpose of being layed off is to get the grant to acquire gainful employment . It was difficult to live on full time at what she was paying never mind 24hrs per week.

Not sure I understand......