Court Opinion

ID: 9761619
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:47:49.21043+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:25.107972
License: Public Domain

FRIEDMAN, Judge,
dissenting:
In its opinion, the majority expressly overrules Teeters v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 719 A.2d 380 (Pa.Cmwlth.1998); however, because I believe that Teeters was properly decided and is instructive in the present case, I respectfully dissent.
In Teeters, we acknowledged the complexities involved in unemployment compensation cases when an employer is downsizing. The employer cannot ascertain the number of positions, if any, to eliminate until after learning the number of employees that will leave voluntarily by accepting the separation/early retirement package. At the same time, the employee who accepts such a retirement package cannot be certain whether a job would have been available had he or she remained employed. We also considered the purpose of the Unemployment Compensation Law (Law),1 which is to provide benefits to workers who are unemployed through no fault of their own. Faced with these uncertainties and considerations, we recognized in Teeters that the facts of each case must be carefully scrutinized, and each case must turn on its own facts.
In Teeters, this court faced a fact situation that is very similar to the present case and, in fact, involved the same employer. In that case, Employer issued a Personnel Bulletin indicating that 157 excess jobs existed. Although Employer expressed the hope that the early retirement program and normal attrition would eliminate the need for a RIF, Employer stated that if they did not, RIF separation letters would be issued. The claimant, Carol J. Teeters, who was employed as a material *131handler, took early retirement and a $25,000 incentive under a VSIP/VERA program window. See Teeters.
Following our factual analysis, we identified specific factors in Teeters showing that Employer conveyed “a sense of urgency and an immediate need to reduce its workforce:”
(1) [cjlaimant’s supervisor had indicated that her position might be eliminated;
(2) Bulletin I stated that there were 157 excess positions and that if these positions were not eliminated voluntarily, RIF letters would be issued;
(3) there were too many supervisors;
(4) [claimant was the only non-veteran supervisor and there was a preference for veterans;
(5) [claimant had the second lowest seniority level and the person with less seniority was a veteran; and
(6) [claimant supervised substantially fewer employees than the other supervisors.
Teeters, 719 A.2d at 383. In addition, Teeters had only one week to make her irrevocable decision to retire.
Having completed this analysis, we applied the accepted standard for determining eligibility for benefits and concluded, as a matter of law, that the claimant’s termination was for cause of a necessitous and compelling nature because Employer:
created circumstances which put both real and substantial pressure on [the][c]laimant to terminate her employment; this pressure, combined with [the][c]laimant’s position relative to other employees and Employer’s preference for veterans, indicated that [the][c]laimant’s fears about her job security were well-founded and certainly would have compelled a reasonable person under these circumstances to act as [the][c]laimant did.
Id. at 383.
In discounting Teeters, the majority first states that the claimant there failed to prove that her fear was not speculative. (Majority op. at 129 n. 7.) However, as we recognized in our analysis in that case, the claimant’s fear in this type of situation always is speculative to a degree because the employer cannot be sure of how many positions it must eliminate until it knows how many employees will accept the separation/early retirement package, and the employee does not know until after the downsizing whether his or her job will be eliminated. Mindful that hindsight is always 2%o, we stressed the need to examine the circumstances existing at the time the employee voluntarily chose to leave the employer. If the employer created circumstances that placed real and substantial pressure on the claimant to leave his or her position, then we must conclude that the claimant had necessitous and compelling reasons for doing so. Because the list of factors in Teeters demonstrated just such a situation, we held the claimant was entitled to benefits.
However, the majority here also concludes that we erred in Teeters by ignoring findings sixteen and seventeen, which indicated that work was available to the claimant at the time she retired. (Majority op. at 129, n. 7.) I must disagree. We did not ignore these findings in Teeters; rather, we simply recognized that they were not dispositive and that, despite such findings, a claimant could prove the existence of factors that would establish an entitlement to benefits. We saw no need to address the findings further because, after conducting a thorough analysis of the record, we concluded that the claimant did just that by presenting other factors that outweighed the findings and clearly showed *132the claimant was pressured to accept the early retirement package. On that basis, we held that, as a matter of law, the claimant terminated her employment for necessitous and compelling reasons.
Because I believe Teeters was properly and correctly decided and remains good law, I would reverse in this case, based on Teeters.
Indeed, in the present case, Employer’s RIF and elimination of 460 jobs by September 2000 was more certain and daunting than the possible elimination of 157 positions in Teeters. After Employer announced in a newsletter that it was eliminating 460 positions, (O.R. at Item No. 6, DDC News Release; UCBR’s Findings of Fact, No. 8), Employer issued an employee memorandum indicating that it would run a mock RIF in April 2000 to give employees an indication of who might lose their jobs during the downsizing, (O.R. at Item No. 6, Memorandum) and, thus, enable those employees to decide whether to accept the VSIP/VERA before the official RIF was issued and their eligibility would end.2
Despite Employer’s assurances that the mock RIF would not prevent employees from later applying for VSIP, and that “We will notify you in advance of any additional VERA/VSIP window(s) throughout FY2000,” (O.R. at Item No. 6, Memorandum), the VSIP/VERA window closed before the mock RIF took place. Further, Employer never indicated that another window would open between the mock RIF in April and the official RIF in September. In fact, Employer’s own witness acknowledged that the possibility of another window was “speculative.” Thus, although Employer said the mock RIF would give employees an indication of whether their jobs would remain after the downsizing, employees never received the benefit of this information in time to aid their decision-making.
Claimant was placed in the unenviable position of taking a risk in an uncertain environment where layoffs were not just possible, but likely. Employer made numerous statements that it was making serious efforts to downsize and informed employees that 460 jobs would be eliminated. Employer did not dispute that only eleven of the twenty-three positions would remain in Claimant’s department after the official RIF. Because there were more than eleven people ahead of Claimant on the seniority list, and because Claimant did not possess the preferred veteran status, she could not be certain that she would still have a job after the downsizing. Thus, the circumstances indicated a likelihood of an imminent layoff for Claimant, and her fears that job loss would materialize were well-founded. Moreover, because Claimant’s doubt about whether another window would open was justified, she was pressured to accept the VSIP/VERA early retirement package when she did because she could not be sure the opportunity would be offered again.
I agree with Claimant that, under these *133circumstances,3 a reasonable person would act as she did. Thus, I would conclude that Claimant had necessitous and compelling cause to voluntarily terminate her employment, making her eligible for unemployment compensation benefits. Accordingly, I would reverse the order of the UCBR.
SMITH, Judge, joins in this dissent.

. Act of December 5, 1936, Second Ex.Sess., P.L. (1937) 2897, as amended, 43 P.S. §§ 751-914.

. The newsletter states the following:
This helps employees who would not be eligible for severance pay (i.e. retired military and VERA eligibles) to make important decisions concerning their [Qederal careers. A [m]ock RIF letter does not preclude an employee in this category from applying for VSIP (which is based on the severance pay calculation up to a maximum of $25,000.00). If the employee decides to remain on the rolls and see what happens in the actual RIF and that person is issued specific [sic] RIF separation notice, he/she is no longer eligible for VSIP (or severance pay)....
(O.R. at Item No. 6, DDSP 2001 Update at 10 and 12.)

. Many of the factors cited in Teeters also exist here. Moreover, I note that, unlike the situation in Teeters, the UCBR here made no specific findings that Claimant’s job was not in jeopardy and that continuing work was available. Rather, the UCBR made the finding that "other jobs” in Claimant's department would be abolished, but would "probably” be filtered to other sections. (UCBR’s Findings of Fact, No. 7.) This finding does not indicate whether Claimant’s job, or any job, would be available to Claimant after the downsizing.
The majority relies on the testimony of Employer's witness, Thomas M. Broniak (Bron-iak), as evidence of job availability. (Majority op. at 5.) However, as stated, the UCBR made no finding of fact regarding Broniak’s statement that continuing work would have been available to Claimant, and Employer did not offer any support for this assertion. Indeed, a majority of Broniak's testimony reflects the uncertainty of Claimant’s situation. As to whether another VSIP/VERA window would open up after the mock RIF, Broniak stated:
For what I know now, today, the answer to that question is probably yes. For what I knew in time in the past, the answer was, it was still speculative, only because those things have to be negotiated with all four of our represented unions....
(N.T. at 11) (emphasis added).