RAV/kasse and reason for termination - should I be worried?

Visas, Permits, Passports and Naturalization
1
Hi all,

I am posting this as I have become quite worried from a message I received from the canton of Zurich unemployment fund.

So I got terminated from my employment. The reason for this was that they got rid of 6,000 people and outsourced a lot of back office operations to Poland.

What was left after that was a mess of an organisation, those of us who were left behind were doing 2-3 people's jobs: people had been made redundant and we were having to take on their responsibilities and the Poland team who was supposed to supplement our support team had no processes and were under resourced and it just became a black hole where you just sent things and you seldom heard back.

This got so out of control that it affected people s performance - myself also. My boss who had cried in front of me several times because she could just not take the pressure anymore and was having the same issues started the process with HR of a formal warning.

In the middle of this my father became ill (and eventually passed away). I visited a psychologist (psychiatrist as they are called in CH) in Zurich and after explaining everything she advised that I should take time of work as I was on extreme burn out.

After the 3 month period was over where I was off sick with stress the company terminated me. They were already advertising my job 6 weeks into my stress sickness.

I am now enlisted with the RAV and I have sent all the paperwork to the unemployment fund. They have advised that they will not pay because they are looking into the reasons for termination - they have sent a questionnaire to my ex employer and they will asess, once they receive it.

Should I be worried about the unemployment fund deciding that I am not covered whilst I look for a job because what my previous employer states in the questionnaire?

I am so worried because I am desperately looking for a job and I am nearly 100% sure my ex employer is giving me bad references and hindering my new prospects of employment (I work in a very niche industry so everyone knows each other and they just pick up the phone to each other) and now on top of this the unemployment fund is saying that they want to hear back from my ex employer regarding my termination before deciding if I am covered.

Sorry to rant on about this - I am in a bit of a desperate situation and was wondering if anyone has been in the same situation or knows where I could seek guidance and help if I need it. I have not been paid at all this month whilst the fund looks into this.

Meggs

2
RAV can check the reasons for termination, and they will, simply to understand if you resigned or was fired. If you resigned, you get penalty, if fired you don't.

Also, if the termination reasons are not valid or unannounced they might penalize the company if they think that you being fired should have been a part of the 6'000 lay-offs. (I am sure your company announced the layoffs to RAV before).

Things get tricky when so many people are laid off...

3
In case of self resignation, or a resignation caused by you, they can dock up to 3 months from your unemployment benefits. That's the maximum.

4
sounds a lot like my previous companies

nothing to worry about here...relax

You were terminated and did not resign, you are entitled to RAV

5
So what happened in the end? Was there any penalty or did RAV approve everything smoothly?

6

Relax, really

Everyone thinks they are in a very niche industry/specialty... that's hardly true.

Also no employer will give anyone bad references because that's illegal. Only some jealous employee, ex-colleague, might be such idiot to risk doing it as a "revenge", but even that is hardly probable. The worst you can expect is passive aggressive, the company will not respond to anything unless required legally, such as having to answer a basic RAV question wether you were fired or quit.

7
You don't necessarily get a penalty if you resign. Ensure you are meeting all your obligations. Good luck!