Can I collect unemployment if I refuse to sign a wage change form?

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Can I collect unemployment if I refuse to sign a wage change form?

The company I work for currently wants to change the way they pay their employees. They’re currently coming up with a new system that will change hourly to commission and my question is if I refused to sign that paper and

refuse the change what that mean I will be terminated or does that mean that I will be quitting? Do I have any legal recourse?

Asked on October 4, 2017 under Employment Labor Law, Alaska

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 6 years ago | Contributor

If you refuse to sign, you will be quitting: refusing to work for your employer. The employer has the right to determine how employees are paid (and how much) and can change compensation amount and structure at will. The exception is that if the new structure will reasonably and foreseeably likely result in you earning significantly less than previously--as a rough rule of thumb, at least 1/3 less--the unemployment board/agency *may* consider that you were "constructively terminated," or effectively fired by the job, in the view of a reasonable person, by the job being taken away from you and made untenable. However, be warned that because the norm or default is that employers control and set, and may therefore change, compensation, it is often difficult to show that your job (e.g. compensation) changed so much and so definitely for the worse that you were effectively fired and can get unemloyment. You may be better off taking the offer and doing the best you can there while looking for new employment rather than counting on unemployment, especially since it is often easier to find a new job while still employed (fair or not, employers often hold it against you if terminated.


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