Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission --
Summary of Wisconsin Court Decision relating to Unemployment Insurance


Subject: Quality Living Services, Inc. v. LIRC and Nicole L. Huebner, Case 05CV1430 (Wis. Cir. Ct., Waukesha Co., December 5, 2005)

Digest Codes: MC 660.01  MC 690  MC 665.01

The employee worked as a caregiver for the employer, a business which provides services for people with disabilities. On her last day of work the employee was very busy, and forgot to document the duties that she performed for the clients, which included forgetting to sign the clients’ medication sign-off list. The employee also failed to unpack the clients’ lunchboxes and clean them out. She was discharged for these failures, and because the employer believed she had overused the company cell phone.

The ALJ found no misconduct, and the commission affirmed. The employer had permitted the employee to use its cell phone, and she was responsible for paying for her time if she used more than a specified amount of minutes. There was no evidence that the employee had engaged in any wrongdoing with regard to her use of the cell phone. The employee did fail to perform some of her duties on her last day of work because it was a very busy day and she forgot. She testified that, in the past, if she forgot to complete her documentation, she was notified by the people on the next shift and had an opportunity to go back and fix the problem. The employee’s actions on her last day of work were isolated failures in good performance that were not undertaken in substantial disregard of the employer’s interests.

In its brief to the court the employer emphasized that the employee had a pattern of performance errors beyond those discussed above. However, those past errors had not been cited as a reason for discharge, and the commission argued that they should not be considered.

Held: Affirmed. The court rejected the employer’s argument that it should consider the employee’s entire history, and limited its analysis to the reasons the employer gave for her termination. The court noted that it would be reasonable to find that the employee’s actions were misconduct, but that, applying great weight deference, it must affirm the commission because the commission’s determination was also a reasonable one.

 


Please note that this is a summary prepared by staff of the commission, not a verbatim reproduction of the court decision.

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