Employee
Compensation
Employee Compensation, Unemployment, Severance, Cobra, Workers Compensation & Getting Paid.

If you lose your job, you need to apply for unemployment compensation. You can do this online.

How Do I Qualify ?
In order to qualify for this benefit, you need to be available for work so if you are totally disabled, if you are a college student or if you have family responsibilities that prevent you from being employed, you will not get benefits. Even if you are a temporary or part-time employee, you may be eligible to receive benefits although your unemployment compensation checks will be smaller than those who have been involved in full-time work.

In order to get unemployment compensation you need to have enough "work experience" in the covered employment during the "base period" to be eligible and obviously you need to be legally entitled to work in the United States.

How Much Do I Get ?
Your benefit usually depends on the amount you phone in a highest-paid quarter of the benefit period (usually over a period of one year) period each state has a minimum and maximum benefit and if you have a high standard of living or a lot of financial obligations, unemployment compensation will only just about keep the wolf from the door.

How Long Are My Benefits ?
How long are my benefits? Except for emergency extensions, the usual maximum length of unemployment benefits is 26 weeks. Clearly, if you get employed, your benefits cease and you need to let the unemployment compensation bureau know that you are employed.

My Employer Is Challenging My Unemployment Compensation:
The employer can challenge your right to unemployment compensation by showing that you engaged in "wilful misconduct". Wilful conduct is a high bar for the employer.

Examples of wilful misconduct include deliberately not following the employer's clear rule and regulation, engaging in a crime, sexual harassment failing to respond to a reasonable request by the employer which does not impose an undue burden on the employee and insubordination.

The Process:
After you apply for unemployment compensation, your employer gets an opportunity to respond to your petition. If the employer opposes your unemployment compensation, the unemployment compensation referee will make a decision, on the written record alone, whether to grant your benefits or not. Either way, both parties have the right to appeal and, under those circumstances there is a hearing before the unemployment compensation referee. It is the referee's job to take evidence to determine if there is sufficient evidence of wilful misconduct or if the employee will be entitled to unemployment compensation. You may require legal representation to assist you during this process.

Voluntary quit:
The other basis that the employer may argue for opposing your unemployment compensation is that you voluntarily quit. However, if you were forced out of your job, because of harassment, ill-health, and discrimination or because you refused to relocate hundreds of miles away then, under those circumstances you should be entitled to unemployment compensation. Voluntary quit cases are generally harder to defend than wilful misconduct cases and you should seriously think about hiring legal counsel to assist you.

You Must Actively Seek Employment:
If you receive unemployment compensation you are still required to engage in an active search for new work. If you are not available for work, for whatever reason, your benefits may terminate.

Decision:
A decision by the unemployment referee to deny your benefits is appealable upwards to the full unemployment compensation board and their decision is appealable to the Court of Common Pleas. However, an appeal to the Court of Common Pleas is generally not economically worthwhile because it involves a law firm filing a full-blown brief referencing a transcribed record. The amount of compensation is generally not worth the legal expense.
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Timothy Kolman & Associates
Since 1991
Copyright TKA 2008

Severance:
When does the employer offer severance? An employer may offer a severance agreement to an employee who is being employed for a number of years, if there is such a policy in the employee handbook or if the employee has a contract to receive such severance. Sometimes even when there is no agreement or requirement to give severance, an employee will pay minimal severance in order to have the security of knowing that the employee cannot sue the employer. In exchange for signing the severance, the employee gives up all of our rights to sue the employer for any reason, except workers compensation.

Do I Need A Lawyer To Review My Severance Agreement?
You absolutely need a lawyer to review your severance agreement and in fact, all severance agreements will give you a period of time, generally 21 days, to get a lawyer to review the severance provisions. The severance agreement contains very significant provisions which fundamentally affect your rights.

What Provisions Are We Talking About?
In signing a severance agreement, you are giving up your right to sue the company for discrimination or for anything else for that matter. You may also be signing away your right to receive unemployment compensation.

In exchange, your employer agrees to pay you for a period of time. The employer may also agree to extend your health and other insurance coverage for a set period and may provide you with assistance with an outside consultant whose job it is to assist you in finding a new job

The severance agreement may prevent you from ever reapplying to the company, it may prevent you from discussing certain issues with other future employers and may restrict you from gaining employment in the same industry, for a period of time, in a defined geographical area.

Because you are giving up many of your rights in exchange for money, you need to be especially careful and for that reason alone, you need to consult a lawyer who can explain, in layman's terms, what the import of these contractual terms really are.

Most importantly, if you have a discrimination case, you will have to make the decision whether to give it up in exchange for the severance your employer is offering or whether to turn down the severance and pursue the discrimination case.

Only a lawyer with a great deal of experience in employment law can truly help you make that decision. The decision to give up a discrimination case after suffering for a long period of time in exchange for the security of severance is a decision which should be made very carefully after significant discussions with your lawyer.

Can The Terms And Conditions Of My Severance Be Negotiated?
Sometimes, terms and conditions of the severance can be negotiated by the attorney but very often the severance terms are nonnegotiable because the employer is concerned that if it negotiates your severance package, it will open the floodgates to negotiations for other employees with other severances. This might make the employer vulne

Cobra:
Cobra stands for the Consolidated Omnibus budget Reconciliation Act of 1985. It applies to employers with 20 or more employees who offer health insurance to their workers. An employee who loses their health insurance because of employment termination or because workouts are reduced, can choose to continue their coverage for up to 18 months but it is the employee who has to pay for continued coverage.

The employer can even charge a 2% administration fee on top of the health insurance. In reality, many employees are not able to afford health insurance after they are terminated because the premiums are just too high but, if the employer does not offer Cobra, when it is obligated to do so, the Cobra period of 18 months is extended and there may even be a civil penalty, on a daily basis, for the failure of the employer to adhere to its Cobra obligations. If you have medical insurance and you are terminated from employment and your company has over 20 employees, you are entitled to Cobra protection and you shouldn't pay any more for your insurance coverage than the employer paid when you were still employed.

Workers Compensation:
The workers compensation laws ensure that an employee is compensated for medical expenses and injury, including income loss, as a result of injuries and illnesses sustained in the scope of employment. You don't have to show that the employer was negligent, only that you were injured or got sick at the workplace. Our firm does not handle workers compensation issues but if you have a workers compensation case, we promise to refer it to a competent, capable attorney who can assist you.

Getting paid
It stands to reason that you work to get paid. If your employer is not paying you, or is not paying you at minimum wage or above, you need to call us. Make sure you keep track of your hours on a daily basis and request payments directly from your employer in writing. It is illegal for your employer to terminate you for a questing to be paid author enquiring into your rate of pay or your benefits.

Overtime
Overtime may seem like a relatively straightforward issue but in fact it is legally complicated. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires employees to be paid time and a half for every hour they work over a 40 hour week (if they are an hourly rate employee). Exempt employees (those who are not hourly rate and why not therefore entitled to overtime pay) are generally those who exercise some discretion and initiative in their job and are generally characterized as "white collar workers."

If you are not getting your overtime you need to call us. If you are a hospital employee, you should know overtime does not have to be paid unless you work more than 80 hours in a 14 day period

Also, if you are not getting your meal breaks, not getting your vacation pay, not being paid for waiting time or when you are "on call", then you need to call us. Issues of pay and overtime cost you your hard earned money. Fortunately, the law allows lawyers to collect their legal fees from employers who do not fulfill their obligations to pay wages or overtime. We are available with a free consultation either on the phone or in person to assist you if you ever believe you have a problem.