Q: After 7 years I was transferred to a shift I can't work because daycares are not open. If I quit, can I get unemployment

A: Great question. The 1985 case I copied/pasted below should help you understand your rights to unemployment benefits when you have to quit because your employer changes your shift:

ISSUE/DIGEST CODE Voluntary Leaving/ VL 50.05

DOCKET/DATE ABR-83-12308/8-9-85

AUTHORITY Section 601A of the Act

TITLE Attributable To or Connected With Employment

SUBTITLE Change in Hours

CROSS-REFERENCE VL 155.1, Domestic Circumstances

The claimant worked as a Station Clerk on the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift for 2-1/2 years. In May, 1983, she was informed that due

to staff shortages she was being temporarily assigned to the 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift. Upon being informed, the claimant

immediately complained that she had no one to watch her children during that shift, explaining that her brother normally took

care of her children but was unavailable on a permanent basis for those hours. The claimant also explained that she wished to

continue to supervise her young children's activities after school. An employer's memorandum, dated May 2, 1983,

acknowledged that the claimant had expressed concern about working the 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift, and stated that the change

would exist only for 2 months, until the regular employees on that shift returned from their vacations.

In June, 1983, the claimant received a memorandum informing her that she would be permanently assigned to the 3 p.m. to 11

p.m. shift, beginning in July, 1983. The claimant again informed her employer that she could not work that shift. The employer

did not offer the claimant any alternative. When the claimant did not report to work as scheduled in July, she was deemed to

have resigned.

HELD: Generally, it is the responsibility of a worker to arrange her family and domestic affairs so as to permit her to be

gainfully employed. However, it should be noted that there is sometimes misunderstanding as to whether or not a voluntary

leaving is due to domestic circumstances or a change in working conditions. If there are any significant changes in working

conditions which affect domestic circumstances, then the voluntary leaving may be due to the change in working conditions

and attributable to the employer.

In the instant case, it was the employer's action which precipitated the claimant's separation from work. The claimant left work

not because of domestic circumstances alone, but because of a change in working conditions brought about by the employer.

The evidence established that the claimant would have continued working, but for the employer's action. The fact that the

claimant could not accept the change because of her domestic circumstances did not mean that the separation was not

attributable to the employer, but, rather, that the claimant had good cause for separating from employment. The claimant left

work with good cause attributable to her employer.