I temporarily laid off my employees and they have been collecting unemployment benefits. I plan to call them back to work soon. If they refuse work when I offer it to them, can they keep collecting their unemployment benefits?

I temporarily laid off my employees and they have been collecting unemployment benefits. I plan to call them back to work soon. If they refuse work when I offer it to them, can they keep collecting their unemployment benefits?

It depends on the reason for the employees’ refusal to return to work. Employees who refuse to return to work because they would prefer to continue to collect benefits or their current weekly benefit amount is higher than their regular wages are not eligible to continue receiving unemployment benefits. You may have employees who will reasonably refuse to return to work due to an underlying medical reason, due to a COVID-19 diagnosis, or another COVID-19 related reason. These employees will likely be permitted to continue to collecting unemployment benefits.