giving notice of intent to terminate employment

coho

In the state of Washington, will I have to pay unemployment security benefits to an exempt employee who gives 30 days notice in their resignation letter and we ask them to leave sooner?

System

I checked with the editors of Washington Employment Law Letter, and here is their response:

In general, if you pay the employee for the entire notice period -- i.e., say 'thanks for the notice, but we'll release you sooner and pay you for the entire 30 days' -- the Employment Security Department should view that as a voluntary quit and the employee will not be entitled to unemployment compensation benefits. On the other hand, if you cut the employee off sooner (without pay for the full 30 days), that might be viewed as a discharge that would entitle the employee to benefits. These rules are all dependent on the particular facts; so it is difficult to give definitive advice on a hypothetical question. But maybe this will give you some direction.

Hope this helps!

System

Does the same advice apply to Oregon? If an employee gives 2 weeks notice of resignation and 2 or 3 days later calls in sick, can we pay her the remaining time left of the 2 weeks, and send her on her way? Will this make the employee eligible for Oregon Unemployment Benefits? Would we be better off to just let her work the 2 weeks and try to deal with the problem of adequate staffing? We do not have a written policy addressing voluntary terminations, other than "encouraging notice at least 10 work days prior to intended last day..." and "Vacation leave may not be used during the notice period unless the supervisor agrees."