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


PARIS ROBINSON, Employe

P A STAFFING SERVICE INC, Employer

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE DECISION
Hearing No. 99601053MW


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 employe is eligible for benefits beginning in week 2 of 1999, if otherwise qualified.

Dated and mailed April 14, 1999
robinpa.usd : 132 : 6 VL 1059.20 SW 844

/s/ David B. Falstad, Chairman

Pamela I. Anderson, Commissioner

/s/ James A. Rutkowski, Commissioner

MEMORANDUM OPINION

The employer has petitioned for commission review of the adverse appeal tribunal decision which found that the employe voluntarily terminated her employment with good cause attributable to the employer. The employer states in its petition that since this was continued employment prevailing wages is not an issue as long as comparable work is offered and it was. However, comparable work was not offered. The employe was offered positions that constituted a reduction in wage from her prior position with the employer. Further, the work offered was a substantially less favorable rate of pay for the positions offered than exists for similar work in the employe's labor market. While labor standards cannot be used in an ongoing employment relationship to find that the employe quit because the wages and hours did not meet labor standards under Wis. Stat. § 108.04(7)(e), whether a wage is prevailing or substantially less favorable is considered in determining whether the employe quit with good cause attributable to the employer. Indeed, in Cornwell Personnel Associates, LTD. v. LIRC, 175 Wis. 2d 537 (Ct. App. 1993), the court affirmed the commission's finding that an employe who was assigned work in a different position than previously held, which involved both a decrease in the employe's rate of pay and a rate of pay substantially less favorable to the employe than existed for similar work in the employe's labor market, quit with good cause attributable to the employer. In this case, the employe was working for the employer in a position paying $8 per hour. The employe was offered work at $7 per hour. The offered work was also at a rate of pay for such work that was substantially less favorable to the employe than existed for similar work in the labor market. For these reasons, the commission agrees with the appeal tribunal that the employe's refusal of continuing work with the employer constituted a quitting, but that his quitting was with good cause attributable to the employer as that term is defined by the statute and interpreted in case law.


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