Court Opinion

ID: 9516403
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 23:42:00.463834+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:35:38.141589
License: Public Domain

MacKenzie, P.J.
(dissenting). Under §29(8) of the Michigan Employment Security Act (mesa), MCL 421.29(8); MSA 17.531(8), striking workers are generally disqualified froto receiving unemployment benefits. The same subsection provides for the termination of this labor dispute disqualification under certain conditions, however. These cases involve that part of § 29(8) requiring a striking worker to perform "services in employment with an employer” for at least two consecutive weeks in order to terminate the labor dispute disqualification. In the majority’s view, that statutory language is unambiguous and allows a striker to requalify for benefits by obtaining employment with any number of entities who fit the definition of an "employer,” see MCL 421.41; MSA 17.543, over a two-week period. I cannot agree. In my view, the Legislature intended § 29(8) to require bona fide employment with one employer for two consecutive weeks at wages at least equal to the claimant’s weekly benefit rate before the labor dispute disqualification is terminated. Accordingly, I dissent.
As the history of these cases demonstrates, the statutory language at issue is susceptible of more than one interpretation. If reasonable minds can *138differ regarding the meaning of a statute, judicial construction is appropriate. Dep’t of Social Services v Brewer, 180 Mich App 82, 84; 446 NW2d 593 (1989). We should therefore look to the purpose of the statute and the harm it is designed to remedy, and apply a reasonable construction that gives effect to the intent of the Legislature. Marquis v Hartford Accident & Indemnity (After Remand), 444 Mich 638, 644; 513 NW2d 799 (1994); Farrington v Total Petroleum, Inc, 442 Mich 201, 212; 501 NW2d 76 (1993).
The language of § 29(8) at issue here and in Empire Iron Mining Partnership v Asmund, 211 Mich App 118; 535 NW2d 223 (1995), was added by 1974 PA 104. As explained in Empire Iron Mining, supra, 1974 PA 104 was enacted to correct the Supreme Court’s failure in Great Lakes Steel Corp v MESC, 381 Mich 249; 161 NW2d 14 (1968), to interpret § 29 as requiring strikers to obtain bona fide interim employment in order to avoid the labor dispute disqualification. See also Dow Chemical Co v Curtis, 431 Mich 471; 430 NW2d 645 (1988). Thus, the Legislature’s intent was to prevent striking workers from circumventing the disqualification by obtaining short-term interim employment, and to identify what constituted interim employment of sufficient substantiality to warrant termination of the labor dispute disqualification. Empire Iron Mining, supra; Dow Chemical, supra.
In light of the Legislature’s intent that striking workers obtain substantial, bona fide interim employment before they are requalified to receive unemployment compensation benefits, it is reasonable to interpret the § 29(8) requirement of two consecutive weeks’ "employment with an employer” to mean regular employment with a single employer. Requalification during a strike is based on the premise that claimants are entitled to *139benefits because they have been laid off from a new job with someone other than the struck employer. See generally anno: Unemployment compensation: Labor dispute disqualiñcation as applicable to striking employee who is laid off subsequent employment during strike period, 61 ALR3d 766. Irregular or occasional work for an array of employers for two weeks during the strike period, even when undertaken in good faith, does not fit that situation.
Interpreting the requirement of two weeks’ "employment with an employer” as meaning employment with one employer rather than multiple employers is also consistent with the general rule that every word or phrase in a statute should be accorded its plain and ordinary meaning. In re PSC’s Determination Regarding Coin-Operated Telephones, No 2, 204 Mich App 350, 353; 514 NW2d 775 (1994). "An” ordinarily denotes a single item or entity. Under the majority’s construction, "an employer” means "a minimum of one employer.” While this construction may be plausible, it clearly is not the typical meaning of the word. Had the Legislature intended the meaning assigned by the majority, presumably it would have drafted 1974 PA 104 to provide for requalification upon two consecutive weeks’ "employment with one or more employers.”
I interpret the requalification provisions of § 29(8) as authorizing the termination of the labor dispute disqualification when a striking worker is employed in bona fide employment by a single employer over a two-week period and earns sufficient wages from that employer. Because the claimants in these cases did not do so, I would reverse the decisions of the board of review and the circuit court finding the employees requalified to receive unemployment compensation benefits.