Court Opinion

ID: 9543648
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:47:43.791659+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:10:51.008452
License: Public Domain

SMITH, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The Board’s finding that Claimants left their jobs “due to ... employer’s continual late payments and refusals to pay backpay” is not supported by the record. Although Claimants testified regarding Employer’s tardy pay practices, Claimants did not testify that they quit their jobs because Employer owed them backpay, as the Majority contends. Instead, Claimants’ testimony reveals that their decision to leave was due to resentment of Employer’s statement that there were inefficiencies in their operation of the office as found by the referee and underscored by the fact that Claim*141ants quit approximately one hour after being charged with inefficiency and did not advise Employer that their separation was due to pay matters.
In fact, Policichio testified that she was sure Employer would pay the overdue wages when he hired his stepdaughter. Moreover, Claimants continued to work for approximately seventeen months after their wage payments became routinely disbursed ten days later than originally scheduled without demanding that Employer guarantee adherence to a rigid pay schedule; and Claimants approached Employer on only two occasions concerning their backpay, thereby undermining the assertion that wage-related matters produced real and substantial pressure for them to quit. The referee’s opinion in this regard is clear:
The pay dispute had gone on for nearly a year and a half but the claimant did not find it to be a cause to leave her job throughout this period of time. Although the claimant apparently had a legitimate claim for back wages against the employer this cannot be considered the cause of her unemployment under the facts established here.
Referee’s Opinion, p. 2. Although the Majority holds that there was substantial evidence supporting the Board’s finding that Claimants quit because of Employer’s tardy pay practice, I find no such evidence in the record.1
*142Despite this Court’s holding in Emgee Engineering Co. v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 30 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 290, 373 A.2d 779 (1977), that an employer’s failure on several occasions to make timely wage payments according to an agreed-upon schedule of payment can constitute cause of a necessitous and compelling nature for leaving employment, a claimant is nevertheless not excused from the burden of showing that such untimely payments were indeed the reason for leaving employment. Furthermore, Emgee Engineering presented a situation in which, after several instances of late pay, the claimants terminated their employment after they requested that the employer guarantee timely payment of wages and the employer refused to make such a guarantee. These facts are not present in the matter sub judice, as Claimants’ paychecks came on a regular basis, albeit with an approximate ten-day waiting period, and Claimants worked under these conditions for nearly a year and a half. Therefore, the Majority’s reliance upon Emgee Engineering is misplaced.
Accordingly, I would reverse the Board’s order and reinstate the referee’s decision denying benefits to Claimants.

. The Majority holds that the OES Summaty of Interview forms, coupled with Claimants’ testimony, provide the substantial evidence to support the Board’s finding. As noted above, Claimants’ testimony at hearing does not support a finding that they quit because of tardy pay practices, but rather that they quit due to charges of inefficiency. The Majority's reliance upon the interview summaries is misplaced where (1) the statements regarding backpay were merely part of a list of reasons for quitting, (2) the statements were not subsequently corroborated by Claimants’ testimony, and (3) the interview summary is an informal request for information which "does not include a hearing nor is it adversarial in nature. It is not until the hearing before the referee that a claimant and an employer have a full and fair opportunity to present testimony and to have evidence entered on the record.” Simmons v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 129 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 315, 319, 565 A.2d 829, 831 (1989), aff’d, 528 Pa. 590, 599 A.2d 646 (1991).