New Jersey Administrative Code
Title 12 - LABOR AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 17 - UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT PAYMENTS
Subchapter 9 - CLAIM ADJUDICATION-VOLUNTARILY LEAVING WORK
Section 12:17-9.11 - Job abandonment
Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 6, March 18, 2024
(a) An employee who is absent from work for five or more consecutive work days and who without good cause fails to notify the employer of the reasons for his or her absence shall be considered to have abandoned his or her employment. Such job abandonment shall subject the employee to disqualification for benefits for voluntarily leaving work without good cause attributable to such work. For purposes of this section good cause means any situation over which the claimant did not have control and which was so compelling as to prevent the employee from notifying the employer of the absence.
(b) An employee who has not returned to work following an approved leave of absence pursuant to the employer's written policy, union contract or business custom and who without good cause has not notified the employer of the reasons for failing to return to work within five consecutive work days shall be considered to have abandoned his or her employment. Such job abandonment shall subject the employee to disqualification for benefits for voluntarily leaving work without good cause attributable to such work.
(c) This section shall not apply where an employer provides an employee with a date certain for return to work following an approved leave of absence, where on or prior to that date the employee communicates to the employer that he or she will not be returning to work on that date, and where the employee, in fact, does not return to work on that date. Under the circumstances described in this subsection, the individual's eligibility for unemployment compensation shall be evaluated under the remaining sections of this subchapter, relative to whether the individual left work voluntarily without good cause attributable to such work.
(d) Nothing in (c) above shall be altered by virtue of the employee communicating to the employer within five consecutive work days following the date certain for return to work or thereafter that he or she is no longer unable to return to work and would now like to return to work. Under such circumstances, the individual's eligibility for unemployment compensation shall, as indicated in (c) above, be evaluated under the remaining sections of this subchapter, relative to whether the individual left work voluntarily without good cause attributable to such work.
