Court Opinion

ID: 9587499
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:22:57.448828+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:44.653264
License: Public Domain

JACKSON, Judge
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent because I believe the facts of this case demonstrate that Roberts was disqualified from receiving unemployment insurance benefits pursuant to North Carolina General Statutes, section 96-14(1).
“Where an individual leaves work, the burden of showing good cause attributable to the employer rests on said individual, and the burden shall not be shifted to the employer.” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 96-14(la) (2007). I note that the portion of section 96-14(1) cited by the majority is not applicable on the instant facts. Roberts was not “notified by the employer that such employee will be separated from employment on some future date . . . .” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 96-14(1). Therefore, the first section of section 96-14(1) is the portion of that statute applicable in the instant case: “An individual shall be disqualified for benefits:
*210(1) For the duration of his unemployment beginning with the first day of the first week after the disqualifying act occurs with respect to which week an individual files a claim for benefits if it is determined by the Commission that such individual is, at the time such claim is filed, unemployed because he left work without good cause attributable to the employer.
In this case, the disqualifying act was Roberts’ acceptance of the early retirement package offered by petitioner. Roberts voluntarily accepted petitioner’s offer of compensation in return for his agreement to participate in petitioner’s “Voluntary Early Retirement Package,” or VERP. I do not question that Roberts had a difficult decision to make — accept the voluntary early retirement offered by petitioner, or continue to work for petitioner with no guarantee that he would be safe from petitioner’s continued downsizing. Roberts could have made the decision to continue employment with petitioner, possibly surviving the downsizing in effect, or possibly being terminated by petitioner. Were Roberts to have been terminated, he then could have applied for unemployment insurance benefits pursuant to Article 2 of Chapter 96. Roberts made a choice that his interests were best served by accepting petitioner’s offer of voluntary early retirement, and he received the full benefits of that package.
I would hold, having made an election between two avenues of compensation — one the immediate compensation offered by the VERP, the other the opportunity for continued employment with the safety net of Article 2 of Chapter 96 should he eventually be terminated — -that section 96-14(1) disqualifies Roberts from unemployment insurance benefits. Although petitioner offered Roberts the voluntary early retirement package, I do not consider this act, which petitioner did not force upon Roberts, establishes that Roberts’ current unemployment is a result of “good cause attributable to the employer.” I believe Roberts has failed in his burden of proving otherwise. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 96-14 (1)a (2007). For the foregoing reasons, I respectfully dissent. Because I would reverse on this issue, I do not address petitioner’s second issue on appeal.