Posted on 09/07/2007 10:32:55 AM PDT by sportutegrl
HARRISBURG - For Joan Procito, the only thing separating her from anyone else in a legally recognized marriage is a piece of paper.
But it's precisely that document - a marriage license - that has led the former Drexel Hill resident to Commonwealth Court. Her case once again raises the question of whether same-sex couples in long-term, committed relationships are entitled to some of the same benefits that heterosexual married couples enjoy.
In Procito's case, the benefit she is seeking is unemployment compensation, which she was denied after she quit her job last year to follow her partner of eight years to Florida.
The reason for the denial: She is not married.
Procito's rebuttal: She didn't have that option. Pennsylvania does not allow same-sex marriages.
"The decision was profoundly unfair and clearly erroneous," Procito's attorney, Katie Eyer, said at a hearing yesterday on the matter before a three-judge panel in Commonwealth Court.
Under Pennsylvania law, if people can show they have a necessary and compelling reason to leave their job, they could be eligible to collect unemployment benefits.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
Actually there is one more thing -- a partner who is of the opposite sex.
She needs to get a job and stop whining.
My thoughts exactly
You don’t get unemployment if you quit, you get it when you’re let go - fired or laid off. Right?
Not true. She has the option to get married. She just can't marry the person she wants to marry.
This is also true for me - I'd like to marry Shania Twain (but she doesn't know me, that darn Mutt Lange is always hanging around, and my wife would kill me if she found out).
Yes, and not fired for cause.
Huh?
If I quit my job to be with my wife in Florida, I wouldn't expect unemployment compensation.
That's not what it's for.
Not that that will stop the "discrimination" screamers.
Then explain to me why hetero couples are entitled to benefits like quitting a job and leaving the state to follow their spouse and expecting unemployment compensation. You would think that the sodomite's would do exactly as married couples would do and that one spouse would support the other until the other could find suitable employment.
When you quit you don’t get unemployment, it’s that simple.
If you want to follow your skank to Florida you’d better make sure she can support you both.
Carolyn
Pennsylvania also does not allow sows' ears to be sold as silk purses nor does it allow pigs to enter air races.
DISQUALIFICATION: VOLUNTARY LEAVING WITHOUT GOOD CAUSE
The following statements generally describe the provisions of the Law concerning the issue of voluntary leaving without good cause. These statements should be used by agency personnel when explaining the issue to claimants, employers, and other interested parties.
The South Carolina Employment Security Law provides in Section 68 114 that an insured worker shall be held ineligible for an indefinite period if the Commission finds that he voluntarily left his most recent employment without good cause. The period of ineligibility shall begin on the effective date of the claim and shall continue until the worker has secured employment and shows to the satisfaction of the Commission that he has performed services in employment and earned wages equal to at least eight times the weekly benefit amount of his claim.
The South Carolina Supreme Court has interpreted the words “good cause” to mean a cause attributable to or connected with the claimant’s employment.
Personal reasons, therefore, do not constitute good cause for leaving.
DISQUALIFICATION: VOLUNTARY LEAVING WITHOUT GOOD CAUSE
The following statements generally describe the provisions of the Law concerning the issue of voluntary leaving without good cause. These statements should be used by agency personnel when explaining the issue to claimants, employers, and other interested parties.
The South Carolina Employment Security Law provides in Section 68 114 that an insured worker shall be held ineligible for an indefinite period if the Commission finds that he voluntarily left his most recent employment without good cause. The period of ineligibility shall begin on the effective date of the claim and shall continue until the worker has secured employment and shows to the satisfaction of the Commission that he has performed services in employment and earned wages equal to at least eight times the weekly benefit amount of his claim.
The South Carolina Supreme Court has interpreted the words “good cause” to mean a cause attributable to or connected with the claimant’s employment.
Personal reasons, therefore, do not constitute good cause for leaving.
I think I agree with you. I’m not sure why you should get unemployment simply because your spouse decides to move to another state.
I imagine though this was a “pro-family” feature of unemployment, designed to make it easier for a family to stay together if one member was required to transfer or had to go to another state to find work.
Does she want to collect from Pennsylvania or Florida? She didn’t just quit her job, she moved as well.
Many heterosexuals consider themselves in “long-term, committed relationships”...and don’t get the benifits that MARRIED people do. Turn the page. Nothing to see here.
No, they're not.
“I don’t think she should get compensation if she was married and left to be with her husband.”
I don’t think she should either, gay, straight, married or not. You can voluntarily quit your job and the state will pay you? Insane.
Years ago, when I moved to Texas, California paid me UI since I had to move because my husband got a job there. It may have changed.
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