Unemployment for School District employees

I was a Classified employee (ISS Instructor) for a school district in Missouri for 4 years. Due to the budget cuts in Missouri schools this year, I lost my position. There were two instructors in the High school and they reduced the positions to one. The other instructor had more seniority than I did by one year. So, the question I have is, am I eligible to draw unemployment? The school did offer for me to "bump" another classified employee,however, it was not in my field and it would have been a significant pay cut.



Hi,

Yes, you worked in covered employment, but my concern would be that the offer to bump another employee could be used by the employer as a protest that you refused "suitable work", therefore your argument might be that it was not in your field .. therefore unsuitable.

Additionally, when the word bumped is used .. I think union. States vary and have different provisions for organized labor.

I'm not positive, but I think the differences may have to do with whether a state is a "right to work" state or not which really has to do with being required to pay union dues to work for an employer.

And finally, since you are from Missouri and it is an "attorney state" and has some "differences" I direct people to Timslaw He has a wonderful site for Missouri residents and seems to have taken an employee advocate position at least with his website.