Court Opinion

ID: 9577727
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:37:21.671574+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:21:08.790270
License: Public Domain

DAVIES, Judge,
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. Respondent Cook was demoted and his salary was reduced, in two steps, from $27,040 to $17,304, a reduction of 36 percent. A demotion of this magnitude should in almost all cases be treated, as a matter of law, as justification for a voluntary quit, and the employee ought not be disqualified from reemployment benefits. Any other result opens the door to employer conduct — demotion, rather than discharge— that would make administration of the reemployment system impossibly difficult.
I agree that Cook may have been ill-advised in leaving a position that we might think matched his abilities, especially when the employer appears to have treated him sympathetically throughout the employment. Nonetheless, I am unwilling to second-guess Cook — and the commissioner — to arrive at that conclusion.
After a 36 percent reduction in pay, the voluntary quit here should be held as a matter of law to have been with good cause attributable to the employer. To rule otherwise requires the department to make expensive inquiries and subtle judgments beyond its capacity and resources — and certainly beyond the capacity of this court.