Boss says I quit my job, not getting Unemployment!

[Chibchub123]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

I live in Southern California and work as a member a union. While assigned to a small company (4 total employees) the owner of the company (my direct boss, worked in the field with us occasionally) treated me very poorly, always getting angry with us and treating me like I was dumb. Since he doesn't work directly with us all the time, this wasn't a problem for a long time. On my last day at work with this company, I was working with my boss for 7 hours and 30 minutes (out of a normal 8 hour day) in the last half hour I had just had enough of the way he was talking to me and said "I have to go home." This is genuinely the ONLY thing I said, then I left. Normally, my boss sends out text messages with job location for the next day unless he spoke with us earlier that day telling us where to go. The incident took place on a wednesday, I did not hear from my boss that night (he is an angry person, so I assumed he was just mad and I'd wait). I did not hear anything on friday, but found out the only other employee was not working that day. The 4 employees at the company are the Owner, his wife, and the one other guy I worked with. When i found out that the other guy who actually works with me was off until NEXT thursday, I didn't think anything of it. When I heard from the other guy that he "still had not been told that I quit" and that our boss had hired 2 new people on Thursday morning. I asked the payroll person (Owner's wife) for my termination slip at this point(required by union to get sent out to another company). Come to find out, my boss put down on the termination slip that I quit my job.

I want to know if I have any legal action I can take against my boss for this. After talking with my Union, they determined I did not quit (as it is not allowed by the union rules for someone in my position) I just now found out that unemployment denied my claim, and i will be making an appeal soon. This is causing a lot of problems with my monthly bills and a LOT of stress. Please let me know if I have enough on my side to take this to court. I'll provide any more information needed, please let me know!

 

[Zigner]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

I live in Southern California and work as a member a union. While assigned to a small company (4 total employees) the owner of the company (my direct boss, worked in the field with us occasionally) treated me very poorly, always getting angry with us and treating me like I was dumb. Since he doesn't work directly with us all the time, this wasn't a problem for a long time. On my last day at work with this company, I was working with my boss for 7 hours and 30 minutes (out of a normal 8 hour day) in the last half hour I had just had enough of the way he was talking to me and said "I have to go home." This is genuinely the ONLY thing I said, then I left. Normally, my boss sends out text messages with job location for the next day unless he spoke with us earlier that day telling us where to go. The incident took place on a wednesday, I did not hear from my boss that night (he is an angry person, so I assumed he was just mad and I'd wait). I did not hear anything on friday, but found out the only other employee was not working that day. The 4 employees at the company are the Owner, his wife, and the one other guy I worked with. When i found out that the other guy who actually works with me was off until NEXT thursday, I didn't think anything of it. When I heard from the other guy that he "still had not been told that I quit" and that our boss had hired 2 new people on Thursday morning. I asked the payroll person (Owner's wife) for my termination slip at this point(required by union to get sent out to another company). Come to find out, my boss put down on the termination slip that I quit my job.

I want to know if I have any legal action I can take against my boss for this. After talking with my Union, they determined I did not quit (as it is not allowed by the union rules for someone in my position) I just now found out that unemployment denied my claim, and i will be making an appeal soon. This is causing a lot of problems with my monthly bills and a LOT of stress. Please let me know if I have enough on my side to take this to court. I'll provide any more information needed, please let me know!

You abandoned your job.
There is nothing to go to court over - continue pursuing the UI appeal, but be prepared to not be successful.

 

[HRZ]

IN UC world you walked off the job, you quit...you are toast as to UC --in general ...there is a bit of a convoluted point that might exist as part of your CBA and the assignment of workers...that if your work assignment is thru the union and the union is responsible for staffing the job ....but you need the union to step up and make the point in any required forum that merely walking off the assignment is not a quit **************I've heard of it working for electrical worker union members who walked off ...but the core issue was unsafe work environment ....not the management style and comments of the site boss. A really strong union could demand you be rehired and prevent the assignment of any other members..untl that gets done ..but I doubt that's going to happen .

Did you follow all appropriate steps in the grievance procedure .

 

[cbg]

You said you were going home and walked off the job. You'd be wasting your money trying to sue your employer for taking you at your word.

 

[eerelations]

If you had called or texted the boss on Wednesday night (or even Thursday morning) and said "you haven't texted me about where I'm supposed to work tomorrow/today, where am I supposed to go to work?" this might have mitigated your claim that you didn't quit, you just went home early. But you never contacted the boss, in fact your only contact with your employer was much later when you called the owner's wife and asked for your termination slip...which adds a whole lot of weight to the boss's claim that you quit.