DISD May Challenge Some Unemployment Benefits

Officials hint they may challenge unemployment benefits if RIF'd employees refuse to sign settlement agreements.

Statements made in response to a trustee's question by two DISD executives are raising eyebrows and may end up muddying the District's planned reduction-in-force ("RIFs").

As part of the RIF procedure, employees will be given the opportunity to sign a "settlement agreement." Those who sign the agreements will be given severance pay and unemployment benefits.

Employees who choose not to sign will be placed on unpaid administrative leave.

One trustee posed the question: will employees who choose not to sign the agreement be eligible for unemployment benefits?

The response from both District HR Director Kim Olson and General Counsel Jack Elrod was not a "yes" but rather that the District will decide this answer on a "case-by-case basis."

One attorney we spoke to saw this as a veiled threat to withhold unemployment benefits from employees who might challenge the District's plans.

"That's a coercive tactic that probably shouldn't be used in the context of unemployment," replied the attorney who asked that his name be withheld.

"That would probably be a violation of 'equal protection' [under the law]."

Employees who face layoffs are generally eligible for unemployment benefits. It is unclear how the administration could challenge them.

What is clear is that these remarks came at a time when the last thing the District needed was another, possibly expensive, controversy.

We've provided DISD a chance to respond. So far, no comment has been forthcoming.

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