Recently my employer filed a late appeal to my initial determination for unemployment benefits. I qualified and the decision was made final after my employer failed to respond. A week later, they are trying to gat an appeal saying that the information should have been sent to their corporate office rather than to the store. My understanding is that they need to show "good cause" for filing a late appeal. Is this "good cause"?

The UI folks will make that call.

Personally, I think the case of the employer is very weak. The company received the decision and the fact that the store and the head office did not communicate well is not really a good cause for filing a late appeal, IMHO.

Good cause might be something along the lines of being able to produce a witness that was not available to testify at the time of the initial hearing or some similar item that shows that not all relevant facts were considered. Simply dragging feet in filing an appeal does not cut it.

But, the UI folks can be strange, at times. Their call.

Agree with Scott. In addition, the notice of determination is generally sent to the place of employment as opposed to a corporate address in PA. In other words, the so-called "good cause" argued by the employer will likely not be considered as such by the DLI.

If so, then the matter is all but moot and the original determination will stand.

I spoke to someone at the UC Center. They said the employer has a right to appeal. The employer failed to respond to the notice of financial determination, which is what they are now trying to do--but too late. They can now appeal the notice of determination.

So, the employer did not appeal the monetary determination, but still is within the deadline to appeal the Notice of Determination that found you eligible to collect based on your separation?

yes. They are within the timeline to appeal the Notice of Determination. They are using section 402(e), "failure to perform to standards despite warnings and admonitions."

Here's the situation: I was a server in a restaurant. I was fired because I received two written customer complaints. (never saw them, fired over the phone)

while they have the right to apeal I doubt they will win because they were late because of bad corporate communication with the store. The appeal is late and they need a good reason why they are filling late which that isn't a good reason no matter what they are apealing.

If they are appealing the notice of determination and the appeal has been filed timely, then there is no issue of late appeal.

As to the merits of the case, the employer will have a difficult time proving willful misconduct. It appears there entire case will rest on hearsay, to wit, two letters of complaint. You will be able to refute the allegations posed in the letters (if the employer even offers them into the record) by providing testimony under oath. Therefore, your testimony will be given far greater weight by the Appeals Referee than an unsworn letter from someone who will be very unlikely to offer testimony.

Did you receive any warnings because of customer service issues?

They are claiming that I was warned once back in May. The circumstances surrounding that so-called warning are bizarre and there is nothing in writing. My employer uses a mystery shopping service that evaluates the restaurant. about once a month. I never saw the report, but was told by a manager that my portion of the score was low. ( I had achieved a perfect score before and an excellent score another time after) She told me her boss was mad about it and it didn't look good for her. She told me the mystery shopper said that I didn't want to answer questions and called me unhelpful, which I believed was not true. (if I don't do a good job, people won't tip-- and the shopper did)

She told me that she was going to let me have the time off I had requested prior and then tell her corporate boss that she was suspending me for two weeks. She said she was deleting the e-mail that I had sent with the dates so another manager wouldn't see. She told me not to tell anyone. So I specifically asked her if she was suspending me and was I going home. She said, "no, I need you to work. Don't worry about it." This all happened behind the store while having a cigarette. I worked that day with her boss present.