Them changing your schedule

by Jennifer

(Pennsylvania)

I worked for a company in Pennsylvania since 1998. In 2007 they franchised to another company that agreed to keep our salaries, vacations, bonuses, and schedules the same. At the end of 2009 they hired a new Operations Manager, he has decided to cut salaries and change schedules. For the past 2 1/2 years I have been working for this company which required me to work 45 hours a week, you could start any where between 5a-7am Monday thru Friday. Now the requirement is you have to work 6am to 3:30pm Monday thru Thursday and 10a-8pm on Friday.My dilemna is I have a 5 year old that doesn’t start school until 9am. I have an arrangement with my neighbor to take my daughter to the bus stop. But, she said the earliest she will take her is 6:45am. That left me enough time to get to work by 7am. My husband just started a new job in November, he starts at 6am and most days works until 6pm. I have already asked my neigbor if she would be willing to take my daughter an hour earlier and she said she can’t. I checked into the local day cares and none of them open up until 6am. Which I don’t know if this is an option for me anyway. My husband didn’t work 10 months last year and we fell very behind on our bills so I don’t think we could even afford it.
Now that I am required to work until 8pm on Friday I also find myself in a dilemna, yes I am able to take my daughter to school but can’t pick her up. In the past my 14 year old would pick her up and watch her for an hour until I got home. My 14 year old is not capable for watching her for 4 1/2 hours and I can’t depend on my husband being here because a normal arrival time for him is close to 7pm. I didn’t know if I would quit if I would be eligible for unemployment or not. Then I was thinking maybe I should just continue to come in at 7am and let them fire me for not following the new policy. My boss and I have talked about the situation a handful of times, while he is sympathetic to my situation he is just doing what his boss is telling him to do.
Another thing that bother me is that I am now required to work 50 hours for less pay. If there is any advice you could give, I’d appreciate it.

Hi Jennifer,

Do you still have the agreement that everything would remain the same or did you sign a new agreement that show you accepted the changes in the conditions of employment.

PA does allow benefits if a person can show that they had personally compelling and necessitous reasons for quitting, but trust me, they hold your feet to the fire to prove the reasons were compelling and necessitous.

So I hope you have not only spoken to your manager a handful of times, but documented the facts of the situation.

If you want to quit .. even in PA, you must prove that you exhausted all efforts to preserve the employment when the reason for quitting is personal.

On the other hand it is the employer who has initiated a substantial change in the conditions of hire .. if the agreement is documented and doesn’t expire .. and you aren’t aware of any change to that agreement that you were required to sign it “MIGHT BE” substantial enough to be “attributable to the employment”.

I wish PA had a precedent manual because just reading decisions makes understanding the “reasoning” they use easier to grasp.

Whatever you do .. document everything including your efforts to obtain childcare and the problems this change is causing for you.

You might try fastcase.com .. they have a 24 hour free trial in which you can research PA unemployment decisions .. it might help.