Can an employee claim unemployent if they voluntarily reduce their hours?

Question: An employee requested a schedule change for personal reasons. We agreed to make them a part-time employee, and so it was granted. That employee has now filed for unemployment for “reduced hours”. How can I make sure the claim is denied?

The Legal Reality

Before diving into specifics, it’s important to note that you can never guarantee an unemployment claim will be denied. Employees are free to file, and the state unemployment board makes the final decision.

What you can do is respond to the claim with clear, complete, and well-documented information. If the employee submitted a written schedule change request and you followed up with a status change letter confirming their voluntary shift to part-time, you’re in excellent shape. If you don’t have those documents, that’s okay. For those reading, this is yet another example of why it is vital to get and stay in the habit of keeping good notes and using documentation. In the meantime, rely on what you do have. Written notes, emails, or even a factual summary of the verbal conversation can all be used to demonstrate that this reduction in hours was the employee’s choice, not yours.

Keep your response neutral and stick to the facts. The board’s primary concern will be whether the reduced hours were employer-driven or voluntary, not how you feel about the situation.

The Human Side

This is one of those instances where, as an employer, it can be highly frustrating as you bend over backwards to support their request, only to have them do something that could cause your UI experience rating to increase. Since we are not privy to the reason why they needed to reduce their schedule, we can only speculate. But what if they needed to work fewer hours because they are the primary caregiver to someone? The need to pay their bills did not go away, but that does not mean you can help them facilitate a fraudulent claim. It goes without saying that the human side can be challenging when it comes to balancing compassion with the business’s needs, so here are a couple of options.

1) If they are just trying to game the system, which is rare, then gather your records and present your case, and likely, they will not win the claim. Pragmatically, it will be challenging to continue working with this person under these circumstances. 

2) You could check in and ask them if they would like to withdraw the claim and return to full-time hours, or to increase their hours to help out. 

Sometimes life circumstances change, and having that door open can benefit both of you. 

Can I accept a resignation notice early?

Question: An employee resigned and gave a two-week notice. They’re leaving on good terms, but truthfully, business is slow right now, and I don’t really need them to work the whole two weeks. Can I accept their resignation early?

The Legal Reality

Unless you’re in Montana, most employment is at-will, which means you can choose to accept a resignation early. If you do, document it clearly. We recommend providing a voluntary resignation form that shows the employee’s original notice and your decision to shorten it.  Separation documentation is always important, regardless of who decides to end the working relationship. 

Another consideration is whether your employee handbook contains language that may be perceived as unfavorable, placing “good standing” conditions on employees to require them to provide notice. In those instances, you’ve added a condition that could maybe possibly cause them to be awarded two weeks of UI. 

The Human Side 

Accepting an employee’s resignation early is less of a legal concern and more of a personal one, intertwined with how firing them early might impact the team you currently have. There’s a chance your decision will upset the employee, and upset employees often scour the internet to find out how their rights are being violated. 

Our recommendation? Provide pay in lieu of notice whenever possible. If an employee’s continued presence is not an “add,” then keeping them around is not recommended. Unemployment boards tend to deny claims where there is solid documentation that the employee had already resigned; however, this is not guaranteed. Paying out the notice period, even though things are tight right now, means the employee doesn’t actually experience any loss in wages, which slams the door on a UI claim and looks better to everyone involved.

Remember, if other employees see that providing a two-week notice doesn’t serve them, they’re much less likely to provide any notice at all. We believe this last point is the most important, and again, always obtain the resignation in writing.

A patient is making employees uncomfortable.

Question: A new patient came in for a cleaning. After his appointment, the hygienist told me that he was moaning during the cleaning and made some comments that seemed sexual. I’m hoping something like this never happens again, but if it does, what steps should I take to dismiss the patient and protect my staff?

The Legal Reality

Like you said, there are two sides to this: the patient side and the employee side. Patient issues are outside of CEDR’s scope of service, since we focus on the employer/employee relationship. We recommend reaching out to your state board or a professional organization for more definitive guidance on how to dismiss a patient. 

As far as the employee’s safety is concerned, one of your legal responsibilities is to provide a safe working environment and to take claims of harassment seriously. This is true even when the harasser isn’t an employee. Third-party harassment (from patients, customers, or vendors) can create the same liability risks as harassment from coworkers or supervisors. 

That’s why your handbook should contain a “harassment by others” policy and why you’ll want to document everything that happens in detail. We suggest that this employee complete an Employee Concern Form to establish a written record of this incident. Members of CEDR can easily access that and many other forms in our backstageHR membership area.

The Human Side

From a people perspective, this is about protecting your team and their trust in you as a leader. Your hygienist walked away from this experience uncomfortable and maybe even shaken, even if they say they’re okay.

We highly recommend that you get her statement in writing and be very frank in asking her what she wants the outcome to look like. She may say she does not want to treat them again or perhaps ask you to speak with the patient about it. It’s essential to get her take on this.

Meet with the affected employee immediately, have her fill out the concern report, and thank them for coming forward. Then, decide whether you will speak to the patient or dismiss them. Based on how things go, let her know the outcome. The human side here is that you take your employee’s complaint seriously and investigate.