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partially employed and self employed

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thebrain

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ca

my employeer cut us back to 2 days a week. so i filed a claim for partial unemployment. i found a job as an independent contractor for 4 days a week, unfortunatly the ic job overlaps ONE of the days i work as an employee. i intend to do both jobs. and combined both jobs will put me over 40 hours and i will earn more then my benefit amount so i won't file unemployment for those weeks. if i decide to leave the self employment job because i don't like it and go back to two days a week with my employee job, could that action affect my ability to reopen my unemployment?
 


commentator

Senior Member
Usually in this circumstance, you would need to discuss this situation with the unemployment system in your state. It would depend a lot on your availability. What do you mean about "go back to two days a week" on your covered job? How many days did you say you were working now? I thought you said two days a week was all you were being given by your employer.

If you are getting two days and filing for the rest, you're working and drawing and making a fairly generous income. It's a bit more, but not much more than your regular unemployment might be.

Doing what you describe, the IC work, you're standing to lose both the regular job and the unemployment insurance, so I hope it's one wonderful job IC you've got there.

From re-reading it doesn't sound as if you have actually worked at the IC job yet. If not, I might advise you to forget it all together right now. IC jobs that control which days a week you work doesn't sound like a true IC job, but a bit like misclassified regular jobs to me, and that could be really hairy in the long run. Don't take chances and work or accept things there's a good possibility you won't like.

Because if you stop the IC job, and go back on the partial unemployment that would be fine, IF you were a full time regular claimant. As you are, working two days a week or less for your employer, you certify each week that you are able and available for all the hours they have for you. If you had been working as an IC all the time when you weren't working for them, there's a break in your claim and you try to re open it, how can you say that you were formerly fully employed, and now you're part time, and you are still able and available for more hours?

What if they object to you starting back drawing from them after you've stopped to work for the IC, and they refuse to confirm you are working all the hours they have available? What if they simply say "this week for a change, we want you to work x and y days, instead of those other two days." They can definitely do this. And most companies hate your drawing unemployment benefits from them. They will object.

If it's a true IC job, then you could mold the hours around the days you were supposed to work for the covered employer who's paying your wages and still holding you on the job as a job attached employee.

What do you think you're going to do if they call you back full time, change the hours they want you to work, or offer you a different job at the same company with more hours?

If you haven't gone to work for the IC, don't. If you have, stop working for them. This quit won't affect your benefits. They aren't on the hook for unemployment insurance, and they can't demand that you work so many days and hours. the "wages" you make as a true IC aren't supposed to be wages and shouldn't count against you with unemployment anyway.

If they're treating this like a regular job, requiring you to show up for certain days and hours, you're being scammed by them. Discuss it with your unemployment system and clear it through them, always.

At least these wages will not show up on the system, but anyhow, someone, probably your regular employer, will report you if you tried to work both jobs and started restricting your availablility with the original employer. Just quitting the IC job won't have too much affect on the regular job, but I question your wisdom in getting messed up with it in the first place.
 
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