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


ERICA R SINGLETON, Employe

CORNWELL PERSONNEL ASSOCIATES LTD, Employer

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE DECISION
Hearing No. 99600341MW


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 50 of 1998, if otherwise qualified.

Dated and mailed April 26, 1999
singler.usd : 105 : 1   SW 844  VL 1025

/s/ David B. Falstad, Chairman

/s/ James A. Rutkowski, Commissioner

MEMORANDUM OPINION

The employer argues in the petition for review that the administrative law judge should not have applied Wis. Stat. § 108.04(7)(e), that the employe's quit of the assignment in question was not a quit of "new work." The record does not allow the assumption underlying the employer's argument, however, that the employment relationship continued in existence between the end of the employe's third assignment and the start of the employe's fourth assignment with the employer. That is, only after the end of the third assignment did the employer offer the employe another assignment. For this reason, the employe is deemed to have been laid off at the end of the third assignment and the fourth assignment, the one now at issue, is properly considered new work under Wis. Stat. § § 108.04(7)(e) and (9)(b). For these reasons, and those stated in the appeal tribunal decision, the commission has affirmed that decision.



PAMELA I. ANDERSON, COMMISSIONER (concurring):

I write a concurrence because I would base my findings on the fact that as a condition of hire the employe would take jobs paying $7 or more. In her first three assignments, the employer lived up to the agreement. In the last assignment she was paid $6.25 per hour which was violated the agreement of hire. Therefore, she would have good cause attributable to the employer to quit.

The notice of hearing dealt with the separation from employment in week 50 and whether the employe was able and available for suitable work and included in that the questions about whether her work was terminated because she was unable to work. The employe started work on the new assignment on December 3 after finishing an assignment on December 1. The majority finds that we can not assume that her employment continued from December 1 until December 3 when she started the 4th assignment. I believe that issue was not really before us. I also believe that we would need to remand on that question because there is little discussion in the record on when the employe was given the 4th assignment. If the employe contacted the employer on December 2 and was told to report to the new assignment on December 3, the employment relationship continued. The employer is not required to offer a new assignment prior to the end of the last assignment to maintain the employment relationship.

The administrative law judge found that the employe's 4th assignment was a hand packager. I do not accept the labor market information to be similar work. The hand packager is really more of a factory category and food products work is of a lower pay and often lower skill level.

Thus, I would modify the decision to allow the employe benefits because she had good cause attributable to the employer to quit because they failed to live up to a condition of hire that being assigning her jobs that paid $7 or more per hour. The employe would still be eligible for benefits.

___________________________________
Pamela I. Anderson, Commissioner


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