Unemployment

If I am fired for refusing to perform newly instituted mandatory overtime, will I be ineligible for unemployment? When I took the job, the company didnM-Ft tell me I would have to work mandatory overtime. You could be fired even if you worked the overtime. In an employment- at-will state (which is just about every state), you can be fired at any time for any reason except discrimination on the basis of race, gender, etc., unless youM-Fre covered by a contract. You wouldnM-Ft qualify for unemployment under your scenario.

Those of us who managed to hold onto our jobs through the four U.S. recessions since 1981 have grown used to seeing the workforce around us downsized, with human beings "outsourced" or replaced by machines and new technologies. We've also seen the economy bounce back and even expand, though our wages remained flat during most of that time. A couple of those recessions didn't do much permanent damage. But something's different now. With Friday's breathtaking government report noting only 18,000 new jobs in June after only 25,000 in May, with U.S. unemployment at 9.2 percent - and at least 8 percent for the last 28 months - you're allowed to wonder if we haven't entered an era of downsized permanence.

B y just about any measure, 2009 was a pretty lousy year. The hope for a fresh start that radiated from Washington during President Barack Obama's inauguration quickly soured into some of the deepest partisanship in memory. The financial meltdown of 2008 quickly morphed into highest-in-a-generation unemployment in 2009. Casualties spiked in Afghanistan as President Hamid Karzai emerged victorious from a blatantly fraudulent election that underscored the depth of corruption in his government.

Numbers-- The Labor Department said new applications for unemployment benefits rose last week by 5,000 to 322,000.

A while back, I was released from my company. When I went to apply for unemployment, I found out that the company had falsely told the state unemployment benefits office I had quit and was therefore ineligible for unemployment. After several meetings with unemployment and a letter from a former co-worker confirming that I didn't quit, I started receiving benefits. How can I protect myself against this happening again? After talking to people, I found that employers frequently try to keep employees from receiving unemployment.