Unemployment Insurance is an important benefit that you should take advantage of. Your employer pays the state in case they need to fire you, and if you do get fired, the state pays a percentage of your wages to help you find another job. As adjuncts, we are in a unique position that we don’t have contracts and we are constantly being fired and rehired every semester. We are at-will employees; we can quit anytime, we can be fired at any time. The district has no obligation to give us work, and our jobs are dependent on enrollment. We are not paid for the summer, or between semesters, or on the holiday weeks of Thanksgiving and Spring Break, and we can collect unemployment for all of these times. The online form is relatively easy to fill-out, and available at the EDD website.

One of the arguments made for justifying your low wages is that you can collect unemployment, so you may as well take advantage of this.

Most Unions are happy to foist the cost of exploitation back onto a different branch of the state, similar to how WalMart drives their employees to apply for food stamps instead of paying them a living wage. For example, the AFT Guild has an excellent guide on how to apply for unemployment:

Questions will change slightly from year to year, but the Cervisi Decision has survived a decade, and are magic words that will get you through most applications and interviews.

Below are some tips from Carlynne Albee:

 I file for unemployment as soon as I get home from the last class meeting of the semester.  Don’t put it off until the weekend or the following week.  File immediately.  It might make the difference of receiving one more weeks’ worth of benefits.  This is not legal advice.  It helps to start the homework (below) now because it can be time consuming if you have not done it before.

From past experience I have found out that there is some “homework” that you should be doing now to get ready to file for unemployment.   This is not legal advice.  It is just what I have discovered after filing for unemployment for summer and winter breaks.

First of all, you will need 18 months of pay history.   These are calendar months, not months with earnings.    I set up an Excel page.  The rows are months, with totals by quarter.  The columns are employers – considering that most Adjuncts work for more than one employer.  

Unemployment Sample Worksheet

SDCCD Employees:  If you have not already done so, go to PeopleSoft on the SDCCD website and download copies of your past pay stubs.  I use print, then PDF as my printer so I save them to my computer.

Using the information on those pay stubs, post onto your Excel sheet your gross income by month.  I constantly update my Excel sheet every month or two so I only have minor updating to do at the end of the semester.

The first time I gathered all this information, it took me several hours.  I had income from four districts.  That is why I suggest that you start now to gather the information. The information that AFT Guild offers on their website is very helpful regarding the actual filing.

The next bit of information you will need for eachemployer you worked for in the past 18 months is:

  • Their name (SDCCD), address, and phone number.  Some districts have a special address for unemployment claims.
  • Your supervisor’s name, title and phone number.
  • Original date of hire.
  • Current hourly pay rate.  Get this from your pay stub, not any chart.
  • Total wages for the past 18 months for each employer.  This is what the worksheet does for you.
  •  Last date worked.  I use the last class meeting.

The Union’s name, number and phone number is also required.  For example, AFT Guild 1931  619-640-1155.

If you are receiving a pension, you will need the name of the pension.  Yes, apparently you can receive unemployment even if you are receiving Social Security and / or a pension or pensions.  Make sure that if they ask, you tell EDD that you paid into the pension.