Widowed mother’s loss of job just wasn’t right
My widowed mother, who lives in Morehead City, was contacted by her boss (over the phone) last week informing her she was no longer employed. Due to lower volume, he told her, they had to let three people go.
This was a surprise, since my mother had been employed there for more than 15 years with no infractions attributed to her in many years. She will be 69 in December and had planned to retire then on her Social Security.
When inquiring at the local employment office about unemployment benefits, she was told her employer paid nothing in since they were a nonprofit church group. In the past few months, other, much younger people had been hired, with little or no experience.
I understand times are hard and tough choices have to be made, but from a business sense please someone tell me the justification of this situation. We as a society need to watch out for our elderly and not discriminate against them solely because of age.
All employers should be required to pay unemployment insurance. What ever happened to fairness and doing the right thing? Have we reached a point in our country where those things don’t mean anything?
I should pray not.
Daniel Edwards
Cary
Comments (7)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
All the best to your mom Daniel. Just curious why someone from Cary is writing about someone from Morehead City in the Greensboro paper.
Posted on March 5, 2009 6:36 AM
" When inquiring at the local employment office about unemployment benefits, she was told her employer paid nothing in since they were a nonprofit church group."
" All employers should be required to pay unemployment insurance."
Do you think there may be a connection there?
" What ever happened to fairness and doing the right thing? Have we reached a point in our country where those things don’t mean anything?"
It fell by the wayside, and "Yes".
Posted on March 5, 2009 8:28 AM
There's a lot of "not right" going on but there's nothing we can do about it. I heard last week a bank that owns a local mortgage company over in Winston called a Monday morning meeting and fired 2/3 of the staff on the spot, some of whom had been there for 20 years.
Posted on March 5, 2009 10:08 AM
Wow, I looked this up on the IRS site and sure enough, churches and church-related organizations—including schools—don't pay into the unemployment fund. (Except in Oregon, where in 1989 the state Supreme Court ruled otherwise.) Non-church-related nonprofits do pay into the UI fund. Pretty scary if you're, say, a teacher or janitor in a religious school. I'm glad this letter was published. Now I know where to NEVER apply for work.
I hope all works out for the letter writer's mother. These are tough times, and how painfully ironic that her latter years have been made even tougher by a church group.
Posted on March 5, 2009 10:46 AM
Here's some relevant info from the state about who is and isn't considered an employee:
http://www.ncesc.com/business/UI/UiOverview.asp#who
Considering how many of us are looking for work these days and how unstable our jobs are when we get them, we might want to steer clear of the types of employers and jobs on that list that offer no help if/when we're laid off.
Posted on March 5, 2009 10:53 AM
Sounds like this non-profit church group needs to re-read its Bible, and the "do unto others" part.
Posted on March 5, 2009 8:36 PM
I am realy sorry that someone besides me has had to deal with this type thing. However, I was working for someone who I thought was paying in all that was suppose to be paid. But as you can see I was taken to. There should be some type of emergency fund with unemployment that would help us. I have also found out that my employer never paid any of my withholding. He was taking it out but I can not find anywhere that he reported it. I have not received a W2 form from him. He want return my calls or answer his phone when I call. Why doesn't people like this have to be accountable. Does no one care how people are treated anymore?
Posted on March 6, 2009 1:41 PM