Court Opinion

ID: 9520389
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 01:38:42.284556+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:46:09.604865
License: Public Domain

Knutson, Justice
(concurring specially).
I concur in the result. The decisive question in this case is whether the work stoppage was due to a labor dispute existing at the establishment at which claimants were employed. I think that it should be said that in defining “establishment,” as used in unemployment compensation statutes, the term must be given a broad enough meaning to effectuate the purposes of the act. Obviously, the criteria used to de*205fine the term cannot be made all-inclusive so as to govern all cases regardless of what the facts are. In defining the term we cannot ignore the employment unit of which the claimants are a part. We are here dealing with employees engaged in a type of work where they have no fixed permanent situs of employment. They may be employed on one building job one day and another on another day. In addition, employees of many employers may be engaged on the same premises. It cannot be said that they are all working at the same establishment merely because they are working on the same premises. While the local e of the work may be of great importance when employees have a fixed situs, it may be of little significance in cases where the employment is of a transitory nature.
In Nordling v. Ford Motor Co. 231 Minn. 68, 42 N. W. (2d) 576, 28 A. L. R. (2d) 272, relied upon to some extent by both parties, we were dealing with a case in which the employment was at a fixed location. What was said in that case may not be applied without qualification to facts which are not at all .similar to those involved there. In a case such as we have here, “establishment” must encompass the employment unit as distinguished from the place where the employees may be temporarily engaged in doing their work. Neither is it satisfactory to limit the definition of the word “establishment” to the central or executive offices of the employer. While definition of “establishment” in a case such as this may involve the use of a nebulous concept of employment unit, it must encompass the employees of an employer, no matter where they happen to be working for the time being, and cannot be limited to a particular place where they happen to be working temporarily. If we consider “establishment” in the light of the employment unit of which the claimants are a part rather than the premises on which they happen to be temporarily employed, there is no difficulty in holding that the unemployment here was not due to a labor dispute existing at such establishment.