I work for a company of approx. 100 employees. 90% of the employment positions are 10 month positions, based on the school calendar. In the summer, there are a limited number of positions/opportunities to work. The company "canvasses" for summer workers, by requiring every employee to respond as to who wants to work during the summer. Then they offer these positions to employees, starting with the most seniority. If you say no, then you aren't eligible for unemployment. If you say yes, and there is nothing available, then you can get unemployment. After years of having to work the summer, because a group of us have seniority and also want money, we are questioning why are we being penalized and forced to work the summer, when someone with less seniority can collect unemployment. In the past, the company has not budge on this process. We are having a meeting soon about this, and we would like some input, and ideas to offer them, as an alternative. What are the costs to the company to try reverse seniority type of lay off? What don't we employees know?

Seniority is irrelevant to any unemployment issues.

What is happening here is that since there are not enough jobs to go around, the company is using seniority to determine who gets the jobs. This is legal. They are not required to, but it is a perfectly legitimate way to handle it that will not put the company at risk for any discrimination claims.

In most if not all states, if you are offered work and turn it down, you are generally not eligible for unemployment. This has nothing to do with who is senior to who and it's not the employer making this decision. It's simply how unemployment works.