UI: Pay & Benefits

Adjunct professor did not get reasonable assurance of teaching courses under substantially similar economic terms and conditions as in her prior academic terms.  Her employer offered her two courses, fewer than the 3-5 courses provided in recent semesters, and she has a recent history of having her…

Claimant eligible for training benefits where her Florida training program agreed to comply with DUA requirements for communication about performance and attendance, and met the requirements as a full-time program that can be completed within two years, with a job placement rate above 70%.

The employer failed to establish that the claimant could be reasonably assured of any level of pay in the fall 2015 semester.  The employer had announced that its paralegal studies program would close in the following year, and in the most recent semester, the claimant’s courseload had been…

An adjunct professor, who was offered 2 classes for the fall semester, did not have reasonable assurance of reemployment in the subsequent academic term, because in the previous spring semester, she actually taught only one of the two offered classes.  The employer failed to establish a reasonable…

Holding a claimant who did not take the first course available to her because she had a pre-planned trip to China to visit family was eligible for benefits as she took the first course available to her after her trip.

Holding a claimant who did not take the first course available to her because she had a pre-planned trip to China to visit family was eligible for benefits as she took the first course available to her after her trip.

BOR reversed RE decision.  RE improperly concluded that because claiman'ts income was less than her government assistance, she did not provide 50 percent of the support of the child and was therefore ineligible for a dependency allowance.  The Board overturned and concluded that…

Simple dissatisfaction with salary is not good cause for leaving attributable to the employer.

Holding a worker who worked at a law firm that exercised a reasonable degree of control over her work was an employee, not an independent contractor.

Where an eligible claimant applies and is admitted into an approved Section 30 training program, but has not yet received the nondiscretionary approval for Section 30 benefits by DUA prior to leaving her part-time employment, she is not disqualified from regular and extended UI benefits.

A claimant who receives a pension or retirement benefit that is financed wholly by a base-period employer will have his weekly UI benefits reduced by 100%; whereas if the employee makes any contribution, the UI benefits are reduced by 50% of the weekly retirement benefit.

A constructive deduction is applied when a claimant is separated under disqualifying circumstances from part-time employment newly obtained during the benefit year. 430 CMR § 4.76(1)(a)(ii).

If the claimant has had a mix of different types of educational employment during the base-period preceding a new academic term, the examiner will look to the claimant’s primary base period employment in determining whether there was “reasonable assurance of reemployment.” If there…

When the communication between the employee and the employer includes, in substance, a request for a new assignment, the Board is “unwilling to bootstrap this request [that the employer call back again after the holidays] for what was really a second contact into a requirement, under G.L. c.…

The claimant was not disqualified from receiving UI for the week that she was in a domestic violence center since she indicated a desire to work within a reasonable time after entering the shelter, citing SRH § 1043C. Advocate: Greater Boston Legal Services

Court order entered following joint motion by UI claimant and DUA for reversal of denial of UI benefits.  Claimant did not receive timely payment for wages (within six days of end of pay period, per G.L. c. 148, sec. 149). Had wages been timely paid, claimant would have received them in second…

Order affirming parties' joint motion to deem late payments of wages as timely paid when “earned” to ensure eligibility for unemployment under G.L. c. 151A, § 1(w)).

Claimant was laid off when there was a large reduction at his plant. Under the union contract he was entitled to a severance payment to be made in four installments over a one-year period. Claimant contends and BOR finds that this was a "lump sum in connection with a plant closing," under…

Claimant, on a medical leave of absence from a part-time employer, was found to be in unemployment as to that employer. BR-0263321 Advocate: Patti Prunhuber, WMLS

Where claimant's expenses exceeded her and husband's income, recovery of the overpayment would defeat the purpose of the program. This case had to go up to court even though DET conceded that claimant was without fault. Advocate: Leonor Suarez & Nancy Rae, GBLS

Women's shelter employee went on partial leave of absence for health reasons, then had to stop working that job even part-time. Employer suggested she take a full LOA. She qualified for UI but then DET redetermined her eligibility and found she quit without good cause. BOR reversed, finding that…

On-call employees can collect if no work was offered during the relevant period, but if any work is offered they are not in partial unemployment. Advocate: Jen Tschirch, GBLS