To be eligible for unemployment in Michigan, an individual needs to be available for full-time work of a character which the individual is qualified to perform. What does it mean to be available?
To be available, obviously you need to be looking for work. There are cases to suggest that you need not spend eight hours a day, seven days a week looking. However, to show that you are not looking does not require a showing that you were idle.
One of the big questions is what type of work do you need to be looking for and accept. The statute provides that you need to be looking for work which you are qualified to perform. There are cases that have held that simply because an individual does not want to perform a type of job, that job is not per se legally unsuitable. There are cases to suggest that you may not hold out over a certain pay rate. However, that case involved a former job where the pay was inflated by overtime. The law does suggest that you may turndown work in some cases based on pay.
One area that may come as a surprise is that you may not limit your hours, even in situations where your previous job limited your hours. For example, you work eight to three because you need to go somewhere at four every day. You are laid off, and turn down a job because it would require you to work till five pm. You may be declared ineligible for benefits.
As for time availability, you may also be required to accept more hours from an employer if you are collecting underemployment.
If you are unemployed, you should spend plenty of time looking for work, and you should be careful about how you limit your search. If you are offered a job, you should be careful about turning it down.
A couple of things to remember
One of the big questions is what type of work do you need to be looking for and accept. The statute provides that you need to be looking for work which you are qualified to perform. There are cases that have held that simply because an individual does not want to perform a type of job, that job is not per se legally unsuitable. There are cases to suggest that you may not hold out over a certain pay rate. However, that case involved a former job where the pay was inflated by overtime. The law does suggest that you may turndown work in some cases based on pay.
One area that may come as a surprise is that you may not limit your hours, even in situations where your previous job limited your hours. For example, you work eight to three because you need to go somewhere at four every day. You are laid off, and turn down a job because it would require you to work till five pm. You may be declared ineligible for benefits.
As for time availability, you may also be required to accept more hours from an employer if you are collecting underemployment.
If you are unemployed, you should spend plenty of time looking for work, and you should be careful about how you limit your search. If you are offered a job, you should be careful about turning it down.
A couple of things to remember
- In 2012, the State of Michigan has taken a hardline at enforcing unemployment.
- The unemployment statute was intended to benefit people who were involuntarily unemployed. So, any decision you make that would make your unemployment voluntary puts your benefits at risk. It may even leave you charged with fraud.
Other Employment Law related Blogs I read
