Suppose that you are terminated through no fault of your own—you are laid off during a slow period, for instance, or fired without cause (that is, you didn’t do anything wrong, like stealing or being habitually late). Do you have any rights? If you have worked at your job long enough and have earned enough, you ordinarily are entitled to receive unemployment benefits. The amount of your benefits depends on how long you were working and how much you earned.
One thing is certain though: Unemployment benefits do not replace your earnings in full. And if you are self-employed, you cannot collect unemployed benefits. You only get unemployment benefits if you worked for someone else. You usually cannot collect unemployment benefits if you voluntarily quit your job, regardless of how long you were employed. But if your employer coerced you into quitting—by making working conditions so intolerable for you that you were forced to quit, for example—you may still be able to collect unemployment benefits. Unemployment benefits may also be available if you have to your job for health reasons.
If you or a loved one has been injured at work it is important to protect your legal rights. Call (916) 922-9902 to speak with a work injury attorney in Sacramento, Tom Johnson.
