November 14, 2024
By Wade Herring & Luckshume Ketheeswaran
Employer responses to unemployment claims can have lasting financial and legal impacts. Knowing how to respond can prevent costly mistakes and protect your business.
As part of the unemployment benefits claims process, the Georgia Department of Labor (“GDOL”) will contact the former employer for information about the ex-employee and for specifics of the termination. The employer should give the true reason for the discharge and make a timely response. From discharge to response to the GDOL, employers should be consistent and focus on the facts.
The GDOL publishes “The Employer Handbook,” a basic employment practices guide and overview of applicable employment laws for employers in Georgia. Under the section relating to mistakes to avoid after an unemployment claim is filed, the GDOL specifically notes in bold that an employer should avoid changing the reason for separation. Further, the GDOL warns, “Inconsistencies raise questions of credibility and make it appear you are looking for the right words to disqualify the claimant from receiving benefits.”
The law is intended to encourage employers to respond on time and in full to requests for information after an ex-employee has filed a claim for unemployment benefits. The concern is that unnecessary benefits may be paid because employers respond too late or with incomplete information.
An employer may be charged for all unemployment benefits paid because of the employer’s failure to provide a timely written response to a claim for unemployment insurance benefits, regardless of whether the determination to pay benefits is later reversed on appeal or if an overpayment is established. More importantly, employers who fail to respond fully and on time to written requests for information on any three unemployment insurance claims within one calendar year will be charged for benefits paid on all claims that follow in that year.
Employers have the right to appeal the determination that they failed to respond properly, but they must be prepared to establish “substantial good cause.” Substantial good cause requires a showing of extenuating circumstances which prevented the timely or adequate filing by the employer, or such extenuating circumstances were beyond the employer’s or the employer’s agent’s control. In other words, establishing substantial good cause will be difficult.
Depending on the circumstances of an employee’s departure, some employers intentionally soft-pedal their responses to claims for unemployment benefits. After all, the employer pays unemployment taxes and unemployment benefits were designed as a safety-net for persons out of work. An ex-employee receiving benefits has some modest income, and therefore, is less angry and less desperate, perhaps less likely to file other, more serious legal claims, such as a charge of discrimination.
The GDOL’s rules change the calculus for how employers can separate employees who are not a good fit, while attempting to soften the landing for the employee who is exiting the organization. When the GDOL requests information in response to an unemployment claim, employers should respond fully, truthfully, and on time.
For more information, please contact Wade Herring (wherring@huntermaclean.com) or Luckshume Ketheeswaran (lketheeswaran@huntermaclean.com) at HunterMaclean, or by phone at (912) 236-0261.
