Can I still collect unemployment if I quit due to safety concerns?
Question Details:
I work for a company that provides a pick up service for potential customers under the slogan "we'll pick you up". We'll while I was on a pick-up I was robbed at gun point as I was sitting in the car waiting for a customer. The neighborhood wasn't a good one and I think the pick up was a bogus set up. Now I don't want to perform any more pick-ups even though it's a part of my job and I really don't think that my pay justifies the risk. If I leave the company will I forfeit unemployment insurance? Or can I go out on stress leave until I find something else?
I imagine you are very tramatized. You might want to seek out a consultation with a workerman's compensation attorney in your area. I do not practice in that area of employment law, but it is possible that you might be able to recover for emotional injuries incurred during the course of your employment. The workman's compensation might also be able to provide you with counseling and/or time off as well.
Additionally, if your therapist (if you are not, and you are not well after the incident, you should consider seeking counseling) diagnoses you with a mental condition for which picking up customers exaserbates the situation, you can request, as a reasonable accommodation, a shift of job duties and responsibilities. Whether this would be reasonable is beyond the scope of this response as I do not know all of your essential job duties.
In terms of a stress leave, if you have worked for the company for twelve months, 1250 hours within the last year, and your employer has 50 employees within 75 miles of your worksite, and if you have not already used your statutory leave (or, alternatively, if your company has a policy permitting you to take a leave), and you go to a counselor and your counsel recommends that you take a medical leave for stress related reasons, you should speak with your human resources department and discuss taking a leave under the California Family Rights Act ("CFRA") and/or the Family Medical Leave Act ("FMLA").
All that said, from what you put in your question, I do not believe that you can receive compensation if you quit.
Unfortunately, if you leave because you found the job stressful or didn't want to do it anymore--including because you feel it's unsafe--that does not allow you to collect unemployment. You *could* still do the job; nothing changed making it impossible (e.g. you were not transferred to a distant location, so your travel time would be unreasonable; or you were not transfered to the midnight shift when you applied and were hired for 9 - 5). If nothing material changes about the job--if it's the same as when you were hired--then if you leave voluntarily, you can't get UI. As for "stress leave"--it is very difficult to get either disability or worker's comp based on stress. Not necessarily impossible, but at a minimum, you'd need medical diagnosis and care before even reallly considering whether it's an option.
