Jobless benefits uncertain for Washington workers who quit or are fired over vaccine mandates

[brooklynite]

Source: Seattle Times

As the vaccination deadline for thousands of workers in Washington state arrived Monday, officials warned that those who quit or get fired over Gov. Jay Inslee’s mandate for state government employees, health care workers and others shouldn’t count on receiving jobless benefits.

That warning also applies to a separate federal vaccine mandate aimed at private employers with 100 or more employees, said officials with the state Department of Employment Security.

But those messages come with lots of caveats and gray areas, experts said. For instance, employees terminated after being approved for a vaccine exemption may be eligible to claim unemployment benefits.

“We are in new territory,” said Timothy Emery, managing partner at Emery Reddy, a Seattle-based employment law firm. “It’s untested.”

Read more: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/jobless-benefits-uncertain-for-washington-workers-who-quit-or-are-fired-over-vaccine-mandates

[mucifer]

1. Same goes for Chicago Police and Firefighters

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Obviously this would apply

For instance, employees terminated after being approved for a vaccine exemption may be eligible to claim unemployment benefits.

But except for some erroneous terminations absent adjudication of application for exemptions, and that might include certain negotiated contracts (i.e., in some cases the mandate has been either get vaccinated or test weekly/biweekly), it's a no-brainer that anyone "fired" is generally not considered eligible for UE benefits. And I really don't think we are talking about tons of people in every locality. It's been to the point where it's down to the few percent of a population.

The mandate case that gets referenced the most is the seminal Jacobson v. Massachusetts of 1905 - https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/blog/on-this-day-the-supreme-court-rules-on-vaccines-and-public-health

[GregariousGroundhog]

5. Being fired is not an automatic disqualification

I'm not certain if you are referring to being fired for refusing vaccination or being fired in a more general sense. As a rule of thumb though, you generally need to be fired for some willful misconduct in order to be disqualified. Refusing a vaccination is usually willful misconduct (absent some extenuating circumstance). On the other hand, not being good enough at your job would generally qualify you for UI benefits.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. Generally being "fired" absent certain criteria

that may need to be settled in court (e.g., employer violation of Civil Rights laws and/or Labor laws), is generally done for "willful misconduct", which would include refusal of workplace vaccination in this case.

You also have similar cases where there might be failure to submit to drug testing and/or failure to test negative after such testing for whatever specified illicit substances are part of the worksite policy (for those whose occupations required it) and/or for some criminal conduct (notably criminal conviction) that occurred either at the worksite or outside of the worksite.

Before I retired, I used to be a supervisor for a number of years in the federal government and had to take all the training regarding disciplinary actions (including termination) and let me tell you, it takes a lot of documentation to terminate a federal employee.

[radical noodle]

3. Being fired for just cause

or quitting is not covered under the unemployment guidelines for many states. In Indiana, you can't even get benefits if you're too sick to work. On the other hand, if the employee signs up for unemployment and lies and says they were laid off, the employer will have to contest it to stop it.

It will be interesting to see what the courts will say in these cases.

[GregariousGroundhog]

4. In many (most?) states, you have to be available for work in order to receive UI benefits

If you are disabled (even temporarily, such as due to illness), you generally are not eligible for UI. That said, if you lost your job for a covered reason and then subsequently were bedridden with the flu for 3-4 days, most people won't tell the state that. If a tree falls in the forest...

[MichMan]

7. Those restrictions were waived during covid or were not enforced