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

CRAIG  J  PETERSON, Employee

IRISH HILL GOLF COURSE, Employer

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE DECISION
Hearing No. 02200096LX


An administrative law judge (ALJ) for the Division of Unemployment Insurance 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, except that it makes the following modifications:

Sentences 4 through 6 in the first paragraph on page 2 of the appeal tribunal's FINDINGS OF FACT and CONCLUSIONS OF LAW are deleted and the following substituted therefor:

"Additionally, expert testimony established that the pay range for golf course groundskeeper or greenskeeper (1) and similar work in the employee's locality was from $5.15 to $16.98 per hour, with the prevailing rate being $12.22 hour, and that anything paying $10.66 an hour or less was substantially less favorable. The employee's reduced wage rate of $9 an hour was substantially less favorable than the prevailing rate for similar work, and it provided the employee with good cause for quitting."

DECISION

The decision of the administrative law judge, as modified, is affirmed. Accordingly, the employee is eligible for benefits as of week 27 of 2001, if otherwise qualified.

Dated and mailed November 6, 2002
petersc . umd : 164 : 1    VL 1059.18  VL 1059.20

/s/ David B. Falstad, Chairman

James A. Rutkowski, Commissioner

/s/ Laurie R. McCallum, Commissioner

MEMORANDUM OPINION

In its petition for commission review the employer argues that the employee made unauthorized calls from the employer's cellular phone and left the job location without proper permission to make personal calls. The employer contends that it put the employee on a 30-day probationary period, which was appropriate disciplinary action. The employer's argument is unpersuasive. The evidence adduced at the hearing did not establish that the reduction in wages was limited to 30 days, and the commission is unable to conclude that it would not have been indefinite. Moreover, even assuming the wage reduction was warranted based upon blameworthy conduct on the employee's part, a wage reduction to a level that is substantially less favorable than that prevailing for similar work will provide an employee with good cause to quit, regardless of the reason for the wage reduction.

In its petition the employer also argues that, had the employee worked 50 hours a week, the overtime pay would have enabled him to earn $2,128.50 a month, more than he was making prior to the wage reduction. Again, this argument fails. In evaluating the employee's wage rate, the commission looks at what the employee is actually paid on an hourly basis, not what he could hypothetically earn if he were to work additional hours at a higher rate of pay. Because the employee was to be paid $9 an hour, an amount which is substantially less favorable than that prevailing for similar work in his locality, the commission agrees with the appeal tribunal that he had good cause to quit. Accordingly, the appeal tribunal decision is affirmed.


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Footnotes:

(1)( Back ) Although the employee testified that his job title was "golf course superintendent," the labor market expert who testified at the remand hearing opined that the employee's duties were more similar to that of a "groundskeeper" or "greenskeeper." 

 


uploaded 2002/11/15