Topic
Unemployment
Eligibility after a firing or a quit, the misconduct definition, and the hearing.
Gooseberry River — The gorge above Lake Superior. Photo: Dave Madgett Photograph: Rocky river gorge with fall color near Gooseberry Falls.
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Just fired
Employment Misconduct Is a Closed Statutory Definition — and the Legislature Narrowed It on October 1, 2019, After Every Supreme Court Decision This Page Cites
Minn. Stat. § 268.095, subd. 6, defines employment misconduct in one sentence, removes ten categories from it, and declares itself exclusive. Laws 2019, 1st Spec. Sess., ch. 7, art. 7, § 9, deleted the second half of the test. This page walks the subdivision paragraph by paragraph and shows which version of it each decided case applied.
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Being Fired for a Report Is Not One of the Two Ways Minnesota Takes Unemployment Away — and Whatever the Judge Decides Cannot Be Used in Your Whistleblower Case
Minn. Stat. § 268.095, subd. 4, disqualifies a discharged applicant only for employment misconduct or aggravated employment misconduct, and subd. 6(e) makes that definition exclusive. Minn. Stat. § 268.105, subd. 5a, then bars the unemployment findings from any other forum — which cuts against you as often as for you.
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Quitting Counts as Being Fired in Minnesota Only if the Employer Meant to Make You Quit — Intolerable Conditions Alone Are Half the Test
Henry v. Independent School District #625 states Minnesota's constructive discharge standard in two elements: objectively intolerable working conditions, and employer intent to force the resignation, which can be shown either directly or by proving resignation was a reasonably foreseeable consequence. The unemployment statute does the opposite — Minn. Stat. § 268.095, subd. 5(c), says the theory of a constructive discharge does not apply there at all.
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Minnesota Unemployment: Being Fired Does Not Disqualify You, and the First Hearing Is the Only One You Get
Minn. Stat. § 268.095 disqualifies a discharged applicant only for employment misconduct — a term the Legislature defined and then carved ten categories out of. The telephone hearing under § 268.105 builds the only record that will ever exist, and every deadline after it is 45 calendar days from sending.
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Quitting Does Not End Your Unemployment Claim in Minnesota — the Legislature Wrote Ten Exceptions Into the Same Sentence That Creates the Disqualification
Minn. Stat. § 268.095, subd. 1, says an applicant who quit is ineligible "except when" one of ten listed situations applies. The exception people rely on most — good reason caused by the employer — has three elements, a complaint requirement, and a closed definition, and the exception for quitting to take a better job is far narrower than it sounds.
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Nothing on this page is advice about your job, and no article can be. If you want your own facts looked at, a Minnesota employment attorney can do that — and several of the deadlines described on this site are short enough that waiting is itself a decision.