Court Opinion

ID: 9652374
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:23:00.998378+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:50.831563
License: Public Domain

Justice, dissenting.
I dissent. The issue presented for our consideration in this case is whether appellants, Lea Monaco and Alba Caruso, had a conscious intention of quitting their jobs when, after a heated dispute with their manager, which dispute was conducted in broken English and concerned significant changes in their wages, they left their place of employment to consult briefly with union representatives, fully intending to return to their jobs once they had been assured that they would be able to produce an adequate income under the altered pay structure.
It has long been the law of this Commonwealth that “a finding of voluntary termination is essentially precluded unless the claimant had a conscious intention to leave his employment”. Roberts v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 61 Pa.Commw. 21, —, 432 A.2d 646, 648 (1981). Moreover, an employee’s act of resigning, leaving, or quitting employment does not amount to “voluntarily leaving work” under section 802(b) of the Unemployment Compensation Act, 43 P.S. § 802(b), unless he or she does so “without action by the employer”. Department of Labor and Industry v. Unemployment Compensation Board *50of Review, 133 Pa.Super. 518, 521-24, 3 A.2d 211, 214 (1939) (per curiam).
In the case sub judice, the employer precipitated the crisis facing appellants by abruptly changing back to a piece-work rate after a trial period at minimum wage that was set in place to assure adequate income while appellants learned to use new machinery on their jobs. Appellants’ manager told appellants that any shortages in income would be worked out with the union, and appellants, evidently not satisfied with this explanation, told their manager that they wished to consult with union representatives before subjecting themselves to earnings at the piece-work rate. This was not an unreasonable request, but appellants’ manager refused to let them leave and gave them an ultimatum, i.e., “as soon as you walk out from that door, out of my place, you quit the job.”
The majority of this Court is of the opinion that the employer gave appellants a reasonable alternative to the termination in that “[t]hey could have remained on the premises for the completion of the day and taken up a complaint at the union headquarters at a later time.” Maj. op. at 130. This, of course, is a mischaracterization, because there was no offer made by the employer for appellants to consult with their union representatives at a later time.1 It is not unreasonable for employees to seek counsel from union representatives when work changes have been presented on the job by the employer. In the same way, it is not unreasonable for a shop boss to consult with his or her supervisor when a dispute arises between the shop boss and a subordinate employee.
My brethren have lost sight of the fact, in this case, that a person working at the minimum wage is already earning income that is below the official poverty line. To give appellants the “opportunity” to earn even less income than *51minimum wage is not a “reasonable alternative”. To hold otherwise smacks of gross insensitivity to the concerns of those who labor most arduously for the least remuneration in this society, and does not fulfill the mandated humanitarian objectives of the Unemployment Compensation Act.
Accordingly, I would reverse the order of Commonwealth Court which affirmed the order of the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review.
PAPADAKOS, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.

. Additionally, as Judge Colins points out in his dissenting memorandum opinion, the communication channels were not the best, because the heated dialogue between the parties was conducted in broken English.