I fired a worker for poor performance, why did he win his unemployment insurance claim against me?

Your former employees can collect Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits if they are terminated for reasons other than misconduct. It is important to understand the difference between poor performance and “misconduct” when deciding whether it is a worthwhile investment of your company’s time and money to fight a claim for UI.

If you terminated the employee, UI benefits will be denied only if the employer can show the employee engaged in misconduct, which generally is defined as willfully doing something that substantially injures the employer’s interests.

Typical examples of misconduct include theft, intoxication, deliberate violation of an