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

ELDRED C WASHINGTON, Employee

NORTHCOTT HEAD START PROGRAM, Employer

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE DECISION
Hearing No. 09604484MW


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.

DECISION

The decision of the administrative law judge is affirmed. Accordingly, the employee is ineligible for benefits beginning in week 16 of 2009, and until four weeks have elapsed since the end of the week of quitting and the employee has earned wages in covered employment performed after the week of quitting equaling at least four times the employee's weekly benefit rate which would have been paid had the quitting not occurred.

Dated and mailed July 24, 2009
washiel : 132 : 5 VL 1039.09  UW 975

/s/ James T. Flynn, Chairperson

/s/ Robert Glaser, Commissioner

/s/ Ann L. Crump, Commissioner

MEMORANDUM OPINION

The employee has petitioned for commission review of the appeal tribunal decision which found that he voluntarily terminated his work for the employer and not for any reason that permits immediate benefit payment. The employee asserts that he quit his job because the loss of his full-time employment made continuing his work economically unfeasible. However the employee did not establish at the hearing that it was economically unfeasible for him to continue his work. Further, the employee's calculations in his petition are incorrect.

Under sec. 108.05 (3)(a), Stats., an employee's benefit entitlement for a week of partial unemployment is determined by disregarding the first $30 of wages earned and reducing the weekly benefit by 67% of the remaining amount. The employee's benefit entitlement is therefore determined by subtracting $30 from his wages of $120.00, which leaves $90.00. That sum is multiplied by 67% leaving a remainder of $60.30. That amount is subtracted from the employee's weekly benefit rate of $363.00 resulting in benefit payment of $302.70. Pursuant to Wis. Stat. § 108.05 (9), that amount is rounded down to the next lowest dollar, or to $302.00. The employee's benefit entitlement and wages he could have earned total $422. The employee's expenses are then subtracted from $422.00. If the employee's expenses reduce that amount to less than his weekly benefit rate, the work is considered economically unfeasible. Thus, at the hearing the employee had to demonstrate that the expenses of his part-time job exceeded $59. There was no testimony regarding the expenses associated with the part-time work. Finally, as the commission stated in Langan v. John Q Hammons Hotels Ltd. Ptrshp, UI Dec. Hearing No. 03004685MD (LIRC Dec. 23, 2003):

Wis. Admin. Code § DWD 132.03(1)(a), defines "expenses" as those "incurred by the claimant to maintain part-time work and includes travel expenses, child care expenses and any other reasonable work-related expenses." The commission has previously noted that expenses referred to in Wis. Admin. Code § 132.03(3), are those associated with the part-time work. In Miller v. National Delivery Service Inc., UI Dec. Hearing No. 96600473MW (LIRC Apr. 10, 1996), the commission stated:

The employee's potential sources of income outside of his income from part-time employment and weekly unemployment benefits are not considered in determining the economic feasibility of continuing in the part-time work. Likewise, the employee's non-work related expenses such as his mortgage, utilities, food, and clothing are not considered in determining the economic feasibility of continuing in the part-time work. Instead, only the expenses associated with that part-time work are considered.

 


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