A small victory

I will start this blog with some education about the unemployment system.

When a person is laid off due to no fault of their own, they file for unemployment benefits thru the state of Illinois. The employer at this point is notified and has the right to protest, if said claim is filed falsely, or there is any reason the unemployed person should not be entitled to unemployement benefits.
Unemployement benefits by the way, is a steady source of income for 26 weeks (plus any available extenstions), however I, for example, will only draw about half of my usual net pay.
Here is the thrust of this blog.

My former employer, MGPIngredients, decided to protest our unemployement because from our day of layoff (11/21/08) until Jan 9, 2009, we will be drawing what is called a "Pay in lieu of notice" based on the Warren act which reads;

"The Warren Act provides guidelines for certain companies closing their
doors.  A key provision requires 60 days notice (or pay in lieu of notice) to be given to
employees."

MGP determined that because we were eligble for the pay in lieu of notice, that they would deny our unemployement benefits during this period.

The umemployement pay during this 7 weeks only amounts to about $2100.00, which may not seem like alot, but given that our layoff was announced shortly before the holidays, with NO prior knowledge, it would be enough to help a family thru the Christmas season.

Well long story short, God is good. The state of illinois overruled MGPs protest and we were awarded full unemployement benefits during the 7 week period of the pay in lieu.

Psalm 36:5 Thy mercy, oh Lord, is in the heavens;and thy faithfulness reaches unto the clouds.