Opinion ID: 1708582
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Should Persons Drawing Benefits Be Allowed A Trial Period On Unsuitable Jobs?

Text: Taylor first asserts as a matter of important public policy that the department should not penalize persons drawing unemployment benefits who try out work which may prove to be unsuitable. He points out that he had a work history of relatively light and unskilled construction work, had been receiving unemployment benefits for four months, and could have continued to receive benefits without applying for this lower paying and unskilled job. See New Homestead v. Iowa Department of Job Service, 322 N.W.2d 269, 271 (Iowa 1982) (claimant allowed reasonable time to seek work commensurate with customary occupation). Taylor chose to accept employment as a jackhammer operator even though Hurst agreed the work might prove too strenuous for him. Taylor's counsel now vigorously argues that it would be unfair for the department to deprive him of benefits just because he went the extra mile in searching for gainful employment. His brief states: [A]lthough a claimant's intention to rejoin the nation's work force is normally inferred from the manner in which he left his job and his subsequent attempts to find work, Mr. Taylor's intention to remain in the work force is eloquently witnessed by his acceptance of the unsuitable job in the first place. If a man has ever demonstrated the free market virtues of hard work and ambition it was Mr. Taylor. He is precisely the worker the act was designed to protect from the ravages of unemployment. Taylor concedes that Iowa Code chapter 96 does not authorize an award of benefits to individuals who accept work on a trial basis and subsequently quit, but he urges us to follow the lead of other states that permit awards under such circumstances. See, e.g., Laya v. Cebar Construction Co., 101 Mich.App. 26, 300 N.W.2d 439 (1981); Wojcik v. Division of Employment Security, 58 N.J. 341, 277 A.2d 529 (1971); Wallace v. Department of Employment Security, 134 Vt. 513, 365 A.2d 517 (1976). We decline to carve the proposed judicial exception out of the existing statutory unemployment compensation scheme. Iowa Code chapter 96 does not authorize payment of benefits to individuals who have quit without good cause attributable to the employer, even where the claimant has given up unemployment benefits for unsuitable employment before quitting that employment. Under our statute it simply makes no difference that the person who has quit a job was drawing unemployment benefits when the person applied for and accepted a job of questionable suitability. If public policy demands special consideration for persons already drawing unemployment benefits who try out potentially unsuitable jobs and fail, the legislature may amend the statute in that regard.