Can you claim unemployment benefits by refusing to go back to work?

Employers who follow federal, state, and local safety guidelines can be recognized as providing ‘suitable work’ for employees to be called back to their jobs. The National Employment Law Project’s Senior Analyst, Michele Evermore, says, “employees cannot  turn down coming back to work if the job is considered a suitable working environment and can’t stay on unemployment just because they’d be making more money on benefits”. The Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration also says a fear of the virus isn’t enough to quit or refuse work.

However, an employer must also follow the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidelines which exercises a workers right to refuse dangerous work, predating the pandemic. Workers can document specific reasons their job doesn’t provide a safe working environment and should bring it up to their employer to fix the issue. If the employer doesn’t take action, an employee can file a formal complaint to OSHA for investigation.

Employees may sometimes  also refuse going back to work if a substantial change has been made to their job duties such as a big pay cut or change in facilities, for example. Situations like these may give rise to unemployment benefits, however you should always defer to your employment agreement and confirm your state’s policies to be sure before refusing to return to work.
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