Can I Receive Unemployment If Forced to Quit a Job in Michigan?

Basics

In most cases, you cannot receive unemployment benefits if you have quit your job. The Michigan Employment Security Act includes a provision disqualifying workers from receiving benefits if they have quit, unless the cause is attributable to the employer. In other words, actions by the employer or circumstances of employment must have given you viable reason to quit. If the state disqualifies you, you must find another job and earn sufficient wage credits with that employer to subsequently become eligible for benefits.

Court rulings in Michigan have established circumstances under which you may quit and have a chance to receive unemployment benefits. You must first discuss the issue with the employer and give the employer an opportunity to correct the problem. If the employer fails to correct the problem and the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency agrees that the issue constitutes good cause for quitting, you can receive benefits. In a hearing to determine your eligibility, the burden is on you to prove the employer forced you to quit because of circumstances in the workplace.

Under one set of circumstances, you can receive unemployment benefits after quitting even though your employer might have little control over the situation. If a serious illness or disability prevents you from working and the employer cannot offer you a different job that meets your needs, the state will consider your separation as involuntary, rather than a resignation, and will not disqualify you from receiving benefits. But you must be able to find some sort of full-time employment to meet the benefits eligibility requirement to be able and available to accept work.

Quitting a job because your spouse received a job transfer to a new location will not allow you to receive benefits because the employer has no fault in the situation. A statutory exception to that scenario exists only for spouses of active military members. Another law allows you to receive benefits if you quit to accept a legitimate offer of other full-time work that falls through temporarily or permanently. Court rulings and interpretations have established good cause for quitting in the cases of sexual or other harassment and joining the armed forces.