drastic reduction of hours

by Carolyn
(Santa Clara, California)

My husband has been at his job for 3 years working as a tech for satellite TV, his schedule was 10hour days 4 days a week for a total of 40 hours a week.In the last few months his hours have been going down due to work not being available, working say 7-8 hours 4 days a week.In the last few weeks they have started calling him the night before and telling him not to come in because there is no work. For the past 3 weeks he has worked a maximum of 20 hours a week. This week he got 9.

He's looking for another job but isn't getting any call backs yet, and we can't pay our bills on what he is making with the shortened hours. Can he get unemployment if he quits the job?







Hi Carolyn,

Please don't let him quit .. quitting means a possibility of not getting any benefits or it will mean a much longer wait to get the benefits coming in.

Have him file for partial unemployment benefits until he finds a new job. California will disregard up to 25 percent of what he does earn per week before they start reducing the WBA.

Virtually, if he earns less than what he would get for "total unemployment" the combination of what he does earn and the benefit amount will be the same as if he were totally unemployed.

It is the safest way to go with the least amount of resistance .. because it is a completely valid claim.