Thomas D. Coates
3416 Warren Place, Apt. 201
Virginia Beach, VA 23452-5648
📧 tdcoates@gmail.com
📞 (757) 374-3539

Date: October 7, 2025

Virginia Employment Commission
Escalation Department – Adjudication Oversight
P.O. Box 26441
Richmond, VA 23261-6441

Re: Formal Notice of Procedural Defect and Record Correction Demand
Claimant ID: 54377566
Subject: Wage Verification and Payroll Record Misclassification

Dear Escalation Officer,

This correspondence is submitted to formally place the Virginia Employment Commission on notice of a procedural defect in the wage verification process associated with my unemployment insurance claim filed effective September 14, 2025.

The Deputy’s information request and supporting employer records submitted by Cox Communications appear to omit or mischaracterize critical payroll data already in the Commission’s possession through previous FOIA-produced materials. This omission materially affects the accuracy of any eligibility assessment and therefore invalidates any pending or future determination that relies upon those incomplete employer submissions.

To clarify the factual record:

  1. My last day of active work for Cox Communications was June 28, 2024, at which time I was transitioned to short-term disability (STD) pay.
  2. I remained on STD pay through November 20, 2024, though the payments were intermittent and frequently underpaid.
  3. From November 20, 2024, through January 2, 2025, I was on disability without pay, with only two minor administrative corrections appearing as deposits in December 2024 and January 2025.

These deposits do not constitute wages for active employment under Va. Code § 60.2-614, and any inference otherwise would constitute a misclassification of disability income as wages, a clear procedural and factual error.

It is also significant that the VEC’s September 22, 2025 wage verification notice did not indicate that the Commission would substitute employer-side records in place of verified payroll documentation already held by the agency. As such, reliance on Cox’s internal HR records — to the exclusion of actual payroll data — would render any pending determination void for lack of evidentiary integrity under governing administrative procedure.

Accordingly, I am re-submitting accurate payroll records covering June 28, 2024, through January 2025, along with a copy of the FOIA records previously produced by the VEC, both of which collectively establish the true compensation timeline and separation context.

I hereby request immediate confirmation that these records are being incorporated into the adjudicative file and reviewed by the appropriate supervisory authority prior to any issuance of determination. Proceeding otherwise would constitute a continuation of a defective process and expose the agency to formal procedural challenge.

Respectfully,

Thomas D. Coates
Claimant

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