Court Opinion

ID: 7822606
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-07 17:59:46.826529+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:30:46.435915
License: Public Domain

John I. Purtle, Justice, dissenting. Appellee was receiving extended unemployment benefits when she accepted a part-time job with Sears Portrait Studio. The part-time job did not disqualify her from continuing to receive unemployment benefits except for a reduction in benefits for two weeks in which she worked more hours than usual. She could receive up to $38.00 from earned wages before her benefits would be reduced. Her hours had been reduced to seven hours a week for which she was paid $20.65. The hours were arranged to require her to work three hours on Monday and two hours on each of two evenings. She lived ten miles from work and had to hire a babysitter the two nights she worked. In terminating her employment she stated she was not getting enough hours to pay for driving to and from work and paying the babysitter. Had she continued her employment at seven hours a week she would have still been entitled to her full unemployment benefits. The sole reason she was denied continued benefits was because she voluntarily quit the part-time job. In her petition to the Appeals Tribunal she said: “I am appealing this decision because I feel I had just cause to quitas it was costing me more money to drive to this part-time job than I was making.” The question is whether the issue of eligibility was properly considered by the Court of Appeals. I think the issue is so intricately interwoven with the disqualification issue that the two cannot be separated. The claimant’s reason for appealing was that she had been disqualified from receiving continued benefits. Had the Division allowed her to continue receiving benefits, as it had during her employment at Sears, she obviously would not have appealed. Her only complaint and the reason for her appeal is the fact that she was ruled ineligible for unemployment benefits because she voluntarily quit her last job. Although she claimed justification for leaving the job, the real issue to her was denial of benefits. It would have made no difference to her whether she had just cause to quit the j ob or not if she had continued to receive unemployment compensation. Therefore, I think the Court of Appeals was correct in deciding the issue of continued benefits. Other jurisdictions considering this question have held that voluntarily leaving a part-time job without just cause related to the work is not sufficient cause to disqualify an employee from receiving benefits which were accrued by reason of prior full-time employment. Tomlin v. California Unemployment Ins. Appeals, 82 Cal. App. 3d 642, 147 Cal. Rptr. 403 (1978); Gilbert v. Hanlon, 214 Neb. 676, 335 N.W.2d 548 (1983); Unemployment Compensation Board of Review v. Fabric, 24 Pa. C. 238, 354 A.2d 905 (1976); and Neese v. Sizzler Family Steak House, 404 So. 2d 371 (Fla. 1981). If benefits are denied by reason of leaving part-time employment, it is likely to discourage unemployed persons from accepting such jobs. Such employment should be encouraged in order to reduce unemployment and preserve the funds from which benefits are paid. Arkansas courts have held that voluntarily leaving full-time employment without j ust cause connected with the employment is not necessarily disqualifying if the reason for leaving is a justifiable personal emergency or illness. Morse v. Daniels, Director, 271 Ark. 402, 609 S.W.2d 80 (Ark. App. 1980); Graham v. Daniels, 269 Ark. 774, 601 S.W.2d 229 (Ark. App. 1980). The Act is to be construed liberally in order to accomplish its beneficent purpose. Graham v. Daniels, supra. It seems so wasteful to refuse to rule on the real subject of this appeal on the pretext that it was not raised below. I agree with the Court of Appeals where it held that when an employee voluntarily quits part-time work, which does not disqualify him from receiving unemployment benefits, he is not disqualified within the meaning of section 5 (a) from receiving benefits based upon prior qualifying employmen t. In addition to all I have said I believe the appellant quit her job for good cause. It is obvious to me that an employee or anyone else who consistently loses money on a job is not too bright if he continues such work without promise or hope of betterment.