In illinois can i collect unemployment if i quit my job due to extreme heat in the machine shop

Question

i have worked for this company for 3 years. i had to quit. the heat and temp made it unbearable to work. 10 hour shifts with only a 20 minute lunch period. i have been sick on and off and seeing doctors for it. when i work i get lightheaded and dizzy and really dehydrated. would this be grounds for unemployment if i could somehow prove some kind of hazardous work condition?

Answer 1

I won't say it's impossible, but I have to warn you that you give up a lot of your rights when you decide to quit. You definitely should file for unemployment compensation, however, and see if the company fights it.  They might not.

If they do contest unemployment, quitting makes you start out with two strikes against you. Unemployment compensation is supposed to pay when you lose your job through no action of your own.  If you get fired for breaking a company rule (like coming in late or leaving early), you can be denied unemployment comp because that is your own action.  And similarly, if you quit, that's also your action.

You will have to argue to the hearing examiner that you were effectively fired because the working conditions were so intolerable.  That's a tough case, but not necessarily impossible.  Was there any way the company could have made the working environment more tolerable?  Did you ask them to do those things, maybe opening windows or installing fans?  If you asked and they refused, that will help your case.  It might also help if you have a doctor's note saying that the working conditions were dangerous to your health.

And maybe the company won't even dispute the claim.  If you have otherwise been a good employee, they may not want to make a big case out of the fact that you couldn't continue to work there.  And if your job was making you take a lot of sick leave for doctor's visits, they may decide that it is better to pay the unemployment compensation taxes than it is to keep paying you for medical costs and sick days.  That sort of thing happens a lot.

Bottom line:  File the claim and take your chances.  If the company decides to fight it, get as much info together as you can, like the doctor's note and anything you can say about the company making the environment unsafe to work because of the extreme heat.  You might not win, but you have nothing to lose here.

Good luck!!