[Robert T]

Are there steps to take when someone doesnt return to work? I know they are not working anywhere else and they are collecting unemployment. So far I have only tried calling them to start work..I called them 2 times last week and once this week. Do i need to contact work force development? I love being the boss!

[Matt Kulp]

File an appeal and have the appeal date be the first day you called him back. The employee has no right to unemployment benefits if there is work available, and if he has been offered work he has to take it, or stop collecting.

We had a guy a couple years back do the exact thing, and I waited too long to appeal. I let the guy go for 3 weeks, however when I appealed they went back to the original date of call back, and the employee was responsible to return all unemployment monies he collected from the call back date.

[agla]

Send a letter to the employee and keep a copy. document, document, document.

I went to a hearing for a guy who tried to collect after being fired. My boss was on a month long vacation and I was left to run the show. The lead foreman decided it was a great time to go on a bender. He did not show up for work, left his girlfriend to fool around with his court appointed shrink, and that is just the beginning. We sent him letters and wrote down memos from phone conversations with dates. He filed for and started to receive unemployment and my boss had to file an appeal.

I was a witness for my boss. The guy brought his girlfriend who he got back together with as a witness. He told his well fabricated story and she backed him up. The arbitrator turns to us and pretty much tells us that we have to prove his story untrue. When we start to explain he looks at us and says that he has no reason to believe our story unless we have proof. The guy defrauding unemployment apparently is not the one with the burden of proof. Well, much like like Clevon Little in "Blazing Saddles" it was an "excuse me while I whip this out" and we presented the copies of the letters and all of the dated notes taken from the phone calls and the ones that were not answered. He lost, end of story.

The point is that business people get treated like dirtbags and the real dirtbags get treated like victims.

Doccument everything. Whoever has the most documentation, even if it is self serving hand written notes, will beat out weaker or no documentation every time.