Has anyone had any issues in getting unemployment after being laid off by “hand raise”, i.e., volunteering for a layoff? Thx
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My severance was up Jan 22. Started drawing Unrmployment 1st week of Feb. I was a handraiser. It was considered a voluntary involuntary reduction in force due to CoVid 19.
If you have been RIF'd, you will be eligible for unemployment in any US State.
If you are receiving severance payments, then that is considered income, and you will not receive unemployment benefits during the extent of those payments. Register with unemployment a couple weeks before the end of these payments, but do not file weekly claims until after the last severance payment is received. If you receive unemployment benefits while receiving severance payments, depending on state laws, you maybe required to pay back those benefits to the state. If you "double dip", your unemployment benefits will still run out at the end of the state's time limit.
If you are RIF'd go to your state unemployment website and apply. Be truthful about your circumstances if you volunteered for a layoff and see what happens. There is nobody on this forum that knows the unemployment laws for each state in the USA.
Many folks volunteer for RIF and I heard more people tell me they did not get selected than actually did get selected. Just because you volunteer doesn't mean you will be laid off. It is Honeywell's decision either way.
If you are riffed you are eligible for unemployment whether you volunteered or not.
The company chose to lay you off as part of a reduction of force.
Honeywell will not dispute this. If you didn't volunteer, it would have been someone else or you.
I assume it varies based on your state, but no issues with collecting unemployment after hand raising in MN. You are still part of a RIF, since you would have stayed at the job if the company did not select you for the RIF.
It wasn't even a voluntary quit. It was a RIF (layoff). You just raised your hand to say that you would be ok with being RIF'd. It was still the company's decision to let you go, not yours. Ignorance and lack of common sense is the real pandemic.
you made an assumption that was wrong and cost you money...you are now passing your assumption on to others which may cost them money... your "Voluntary Quit" absolutely was eligible for compensation.
From AZ Unemployment:
- Eligibility for Benefits
- Unemployed Through No Fault of Your Own
UC benefits are available to claimants who become unemployed through “no fault of their own.” A.R.S. § 23-601. An employee loses his job for one of three reasons which are a layoff, a voluntary quit, or a discharge (fired).
Layoff – a claimant who is laid off will almost always be eligible for UC benefits because a layoff is due to the employer not having enough work for the laid off employees. The employees laid off have lost their job through “no fault of their own.:
Voluntary quit - most people think that all voluntary quits will make the claimant ineligible for UC benefits. This is not true.
Employee discharge – many people think that the discharged employee will be eligible for UC benefits. This is not true.
If the company is, in fact, undergoing a RIF, and they are soliciting employees to volunteer, then that employee does in fact qualify for unemployment benefits. I am constantly amazed how people will do zero research, come to a faulty conclusion and then seek out public soap-boxes to spew disinformation as though it were gospel.
OP: You might go to your state unemployment website and explore your decision.
I'm in Arizona and left Honeywell on a voluntary RIF last year. I then looked at the AZ unemployment website and it has a statement "To qualify for UI benefits, you must be out of work through no fault of your own." Since I volunteered I didn't try to file since it was my fault due to I volunteered.
Whatever state you live in, if you file for unemployment just be truthful that you took a voluntary RIF so you don't catch one of those pesky felony fraud charges.
I'll add to my below post to further clarify for the near certainty that someone will present a Straw Man argument entirely different than what I posted to "prove" that I'm wrong.
Back in the "good old days" a favorite son of the "Good Ol' Boy Network" could go to his boss "x" number of weeks prior to his 65th birthday (x=the number of years they had worked), and "volunteer" to be laid off. They got to collect 100% of their "severance" but did not collect unemployment, as it was in no way associated with an existing RIF.
That would be a voluntary layoff without cause.
If you voluntarily quit "just because" and not for good cause, then you won't be eligible for unemployment benefits.
If your employer is RIF'ing people and has a written policy governing such actions, then volunteering (essentially to "save" someone else") is absolutely "good cause" and unemployment will be paid.
Having worked in Clearwater and watched the workforce go from 6000+ to less than 1400 in the 1990's and then leaving 4 years ago during one of many rounds of layoffs, I never, not once, saw anyone volunteer for layoff (during layoffs) that wasn't compensated via unemployment.
Under such circumstances, volunteering to accept a layoff is not fraud and anyone who claims it is is simply full of sh–e.
Collecting unemployment after volunteering to leave is fraud. Illegal and prosecutable.
No different than the jerks who used my social to collect unemployment in a different state via identity theft.
If you volunteer I'm not sure you are eligible. Depends on the state but when you volunteer Hon can dispute.