STATE OF WISCONSIN
LABOR AND INDUSTRY REVIEW COMMISSION
P O BOX 8126, MADISON, WI 53708-8126 (608/266-9850)

LAFAYETTE RUSSELL, Complainant

DOWNS TRUCKING INC, Respondent A

S J STANLEY TRUCKING INC, Respondent B

FAIR EMPLOYMENT DECISION
ERD Case No. 199701805

An administrative law judge (ALJ) for the Equal Rights Division of the Department of Workforce Development issued a decision in this matter. A timely petition for review was filed.

The commission has considered the petition and the positions of the parties, and it has reviewed the evidence submitted to the ALJ. Based on its review, the commission agrees with the decision of the ALJ, and it adopts the findings and conclusion in that decision as its own.

DECISION

The decision of the administrative law judge (copy attached) is affirmed.

Dated and mailed: May 22, 1998
russela.rsd : 125 : 9

/s/ David B. Falstad, Chairman

/s/ Pamela I. Anderson, Commissioner

/s/ James A. Rutkowski, Commissioner

MEMORANDUM OPINION

The complainant states that he received the notice for the hearing but he was unable to attend the hearing because he has new employment and could not get off work. He does not state when he obtained this new employment, what effort he took to get time off or what the exact circumstances were that prevented him from getting off work, however. While a hearing may be reopened where a party who failed to appear at the hearing shows good cause in writing for his failure to appear, the circumstances presented here fail to indicate that the complainant has shown good cause for his failure to appear at the hearing. Moreover, parties pursuing claims of discrimination are expected to make arrangements so that they can take time off from work in order to attend scheduled hearings. The notice of hearing was mailed to the parties on January 21, 1998, scheduling a hearing on the complainant's complaint for April 22, 1998. Additionally, an information sheet attached to the hearing notice advised the parties that if their schedule conflicted with the hearing date he or she was required to notify the division within 10 days after the date of the notice that a different date was needed. After that 10 day period a postponement would be granted only for unforseeable emergency circumstances. Absent any indication that the complainant was not already in his new employment when he received the notice of hearing, he could very well have obtained a postponement of hearing within the first 10 days after Januar 21, 1998, allowing him additional time to make arrangements to be off work to attend a hearing on his complaint.

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