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


BETTE A RUDOLF, Employe

KOHLS DEPARTMENT STORES INC, Employer

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE DECISION
Hearing No. 99602387WK


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 ineligible for benefits beginning in week 5 of 1999, and until four weeks have elapsed since the end of the week of quitting and the employe has earned wages in covered employment performed after the week of quitting equaling at least four times the employe's weekly benefit rate which would have been paid had the quitting not occurred. The employe is required to repay the sum of $780.00 to the Unemployment Reserve Fund. No waiver for the overpayment of benefits is allowable.

Dated and mailed July 29, 1999
rudolbe.usd : 105 : 1 BR 305  PC 712.5

/s/ David B. Falstad, Chairman

/s/ Pamela I. Anderson, Commissioner

/s/ James A. Rutkowski, Commissioner


MEMORANDUM OPINION

The commission has affirmed the appeal tribunal decision in this case, because it must agree with the administrative law judge that the employe did not have good cause for missing the original hearing in this case. As the administrative law judge reasoned, hearing notices specifically state that parties are expected to arrange time off from work to attend. At a minimum, this requires that employes in subsequent employment ask their subsequent employers for permission to take the time off. In this case, the employe did not do so because she did not wish to jeopardize her new employment. There is no evidence in the record to indicate, though, that the employe would have done so by requesting the short amount of time necessary for her to be able to attend the scheduled hearing.

As for the amount of the overpayment, the commission also believes that is correct. A disqualification from unemployment insurance eligibility is a disqualification from a claimant's entire eligibility for unemployment insurance, and is not specific to the particular employment the disqualification arises from. In other words, a discharge for misconduct even from a second, part-time job results in a general disqualification from unemployment insurance eligibility even where, as here, a claimant's eligibility is based primarily on different employment.

cc: KOHL'S DEPARTMENT STORES


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