Court Opinion

ID: 9733376
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:05:29.583381+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:40.911667
License: Public Domain

SCHLEGEL, Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent.
We are here dealing with two separate and distinct acts and consequences. First, we are dealing with an employer’s right to require the adherence of an employee to rules involving supervision by a superior, and the employer’s right to terminate the employee who states that he will refuse to follow that procedure. Second, we are dealing with the same stated refusal, to determine if that statement constitutes misconduct that disqualifies the employee from receiving unemployment benefits upon discharge.
There had been a fight between claimant and Greg Blackburn, a co-employee (who was a lead employee and a foreman during those times when the regular foreman was gone). Following a two-day suspension of both employees, they were called into a meeting with their supervisor, Mr. Pinegar. The hearing officer found that claimant, at that meeting, responded to Pinegar’s question by answering that he would not take orders from Mr. Blackburn. That finding is supported by substantial evidence. The district court and this court are bound by that finding. We are, therefore, confronted with the narrow issue as to whether claimant’s statement that he wouldn’t take orders from a co-employee who might be in a position to direct and supervise claimant’s work constitutes misconduct as defined by the Administrative Code and Iowa cases.
We are not dealing with a claim that the employer, fearful that an employee’s stated intent to refuse to take orders from a superior, had no right to safeguard against such a potential problem by discharging the employee. We are dealing with a claim that because claimant might, if the situation in the future presented itself, refuse to follow the discretion or supervision of his supervisor or foreman, the making of that statement constitutes misconduct. We are dealing with a situation where it is claimed that the possibility of future misconduct results in a claim of present misconduct and a denial of unemployment benefits. The majority finds that claimant’s candor, in calling to the attention of the employer a problem between himself and the co-employee, not only results in the resolution of the problem by the discharge of the claimant, but that it was misconduct for him to make that disclosure. It is interesting to consider that Pinegar called the statement made by claimant insubordination. It couldn’t be insubordination until he was ordered to do something, and from the record, it is clear that he was only asked if he would take orders from Blackburn; he was not ordered to take orders from Blackburn. His statement certainly constituted candor, but not insubordination.
There is no claim that claimant has no duty in the course of his employment to take orders from Blackburn, but neither was there any stated rule or implication, in the question asked by Pinegar, that claimant would be required to take orders from Blackburn or forfeit his job. Claimant’s answer might have been different had that alternative been presented. The majority’s holding is a clear invitation to an employee to be dishonest in his or her answer, rather than to let the employer know that this is still a problem that needs solution.
If we approve the doctrine espoused by the majority, that misconduct can be established by statements concerning future conduct, almost any claim for unemployment benefits can be defeated if it can be found that the employee was discharged for stating he would refuse to do some act in his employment that seems to him would be impossible of performance or completely outside the scope of his employment. While he might, at the time such direction was given, feel that it was detrimental to him and the employer’s interests, the fact that he had expressed an intention to refuse its performance would constitute mis*512conduct. This would be true even if the very refusal expressed might well be the appropriate response when the order is given.
The rules require that the misconduct be a current act. The only current act in this case is a statement concerning some possible act in the future. That doesn’t satisfy the rule. Neither do the cases cited by the majority stand as authority for the facts disclosed by this record.
The majority penalizes the claimant for his truthfulness and candor. I would hold that the department of job service committed an error of law in holding that the facts found by the hearing officer constitute misconduct.
I would affirm the district court.
OXBERGER, C.J., joins this dissent.