Court Opinion

ID: 9678860
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:34:22.713275+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:08.523107
License: Public Domain

DONIELSON, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
I accept the proposition that, to ban a claimant from receiving unemployment benefits, there must be shown some larger, more offensive act of misconduct than that required to justify termination of his employment. However, I believe the claimant’s acts in the instant case rise to this level of misconduct and I would, therefore, deny him benefits.
The claimant’s entire work record, and not just the specific incident which precipitated claimant’s discharge, must be examined in order to determine whether he should be denied benefits due to his misconduct. In the instant case claimant was reprimanded and warned for misconduct many times.
The first time claimant was reprimanded for oversharpening the cutting knives. If the knives are too sharp there is a possibility that the pane of glass will be weak and may shatter when the wind pressure is great. In another incident claimant violated company rules by speeding through a hallway on a bicycle, almost running into and injuring the plant manager. The Rol-screen Company could have discharged claimant after this second incident but chose to give him yet another chance to improve his work habits. He failed to do so.
In yet another incident claimant pretended to stumble and almost fall into a large plate of glass in front of his supervisor. *224Regardless of the “prankster” nature of this demonstration, it was a childish and dangerous stunt; claimant or anyone else nearby could have been severely hurt if claimant had fallen into and shattered the glass. After he was reprimanded 'by his supervisor, he went to the closet and removed his coat. This was ten minutes before the end of the work shift and the employees had been previously warned not to remove their coats until the shift ended. He was thus reprimanded again for violating the company rule regarding the work shift schedule. When the shift then ended at 4:00, claimant passed the supervisor and called her a “dirty bitch” in front of other employees.
Considering all of these acts together, I can reach no other conclusion but that claimant was a show-off and a troublemaker. His willful violation of the company rules not only demonstrated a disregard of standards of behavior which the employer has a right to expect of employees, but also jeopardized the safety of himself and other employees. With this fact clearly evidenced in the record, I believe there was substantial support in the record for upholding the hearing officer’s findings and conclusions.
I feel it necessary to clarify one additional point of my differentiation with the majority. While I would not focus on the isolated incident of name-calling, I believe this, too, demonstrates a disregard of the standards of behavior which an employer has the right to expect from employees. The fact that there is a factory setting where offensive language may be used with some frequency, does not mean that the employer should allow the same words to be used in a serious name-calling situation or confrontation. An employer has the right to expect decency and civility in the treatment of others, regardless of the work setting. Claimant violated that expectation, among others.
I can well imagine a claimant coming before courts on an involuntary-quit situation because the employer failed to enforce rules relating to every day decency and civility in the treatment of situations like this one. It is important, too, to note that this has nothing to do with the fact that the foreman in this case was female. My views in this regard may be overly traditional, but I fail to see why respect for company rules and for our fellow human beings should not be enforced by holding persons accountable for their disrespectful conduct. I find those courses of action which promote the consideration of others in the conduct of human affairs justifiable, whether in employment or social situations, and whether they involve males or females. Actions such as the ones taken by the company in the instant case should be encouraged as promoting better and safer working conditions. Accordingly, I would uphold the hearing officer’s decision denying claimant benefits.
SNELL, J., joins this dissent.