Court Opinion

ID: 9717567
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:06:05.506669+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:54.037134
License: Public Domain

NIGRO, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
I dissent from the majority’s conclusion that Appellant may not collect unemployment benefits because he refused to submit to his employer’s random drug testing policy. While I generally agree with the majority that such a refusal may constitute willful misconduct, I find that the specific facts of this case dictate a contrary result.
As stated by the majority, under the Pennsylvania Unemployment Compensation Act, an employee is ineligible for unemployment compensation benefits when his unemployment is due to discharge or temporary suspension from work for willful misconduct connected with his work. 43 P.S. § 802(e)(1991). Willful misconduct includes a deliberate violation of an employer’s rules and a disregard of standards of behavior that an employer has a right to expect. Rossi v. Pennsylvania Unemployment Compensation Bd. of Review, 544 Pa. 261, 676 A.2d 194, 197 (Pa.1996). If there was good cause for an employee’s conduct, however, it was not willful misconduct. Id. at 198. To determine whether an employee engaged in willful misconduct, a court must consider all of the circumstances surrounding an employee’s failure to follow an employer’s instruction, including the employer’s reasonableness and the employee’s justification for noncompliance. See id.
The rule at issue in this case is the employer’s random drug testing policy. I agree with the majority that Appellant’s employer has a legitimate interest in maintaining a workplace that is free from drugs. I cannot conclude, however, that a random drug testing policy is reasonable when applied to an employee like Appellant, who had worked for Duquesne Light *124Company for twenty years before the drug testing policy was implemented.1
Since an employer has a right to set the rules of the workplace, Duquesne Light Company could discharge Appellant for his failure to comply with its new policy. However, since drug testing was not a condition of employment when Appellant was hired, I do not believe his refusal to submit to the test constituted willful misconduct. An employee engages in willful misconduct when he refuses to abide by reasonable changes to his initial terms of employment. See Hershey v. Unemployment Compensation Bd. of Review, 146 Pa. Commw. 255, 605 A.2d 447 (1992); Ford v. Unemployment Compensation Bd. of Review, 67 Pa. Commw. 451, 447 A.2d 710 (1982). While reasonable for employees who are aware of such a requirement when hired, since drug testing implicates a person’s sense of privacy, I find a new drug testing policy an unreasonable change to a long-standing employee’s conditions of employment for the purpose of unemployment compensation.2 Thus, I believe Appellant should not be denied unemployment compensation benefits based upon willful misconduct for his refusal to abide by the new drug testing policy.

. Appellant began working for Duquesne Light Company on November 18, 1974. A random drug testing policy was implemented in 1994.

. This case is distinguishable from Rossi v. Unemployment Compensation Bd. of Review, 544 Pa. 261, 676 A.2d 194 (Pa.1996), where the Court stated that length of employment is not a factor in determining willful misconduct. Rossi involved a long-term employee who falsified his expense reports. It did not involve a change to the conditions of employment after a substantial period of time.