A former employee for Packers Sanitation -- who threw up at work and was fired after she left without permission -- was unreasonably denied unemployment assistance by the state Board of Review, the state Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.
The appeals court reversed the board's decision to deny unemployment benefits to Margaret Jones.
At issue is whether Jones was discharged by Packers Sanitation for misconduct.
If she committed misconduct, she gets no benefits.
Jones worked at Packers Sanitation from May 2011 until she was fired in October 2013.
During an Appeal Tribunal hearing in December 2013, she testified that she was discharged because her employer said she left work without permission.
Jones said she left work because she was sick, and that a manager, Andre Johnson, was in the hallway when she was throwing up.
Although she didn't tell her immediate supervisor that she was leaving because of illness, Jones said, she told Johnson that she was sick and needed to go home. She said that Johnson held a position superior to Jones' immediate supervisor.
That Jones became ill at work is undisputed, the court said.
Jones was absent four days after the incident and called her employer each day to check in, she testified. Jones recalled that she kept her employer informed about the basic course of her illness.
Packers Sanitation told Jones that she needed to bring a doctor's excuse with her when she returned to work, and Jones admitted she didn't produce a note.
Jones said her doctor would not accept her insurance because she had not met her deductible and she could not otherwise afford the $200 visit.
The state Board of Review adopted the Appeal Tribunal's decision that Jones was discharged by her employer for leaving work without permission.
The board also agreed that by being absent for four days without providing a doctor's excuse, Jones' actions were not in the best interest of her employer.
Thus, she was discharged from work for misconduct in connection with her work, the board decided.
But the appeals court said that the board's decision that Jones was ineligible for unemployment benefits because she failed to get a doctor's note to excuse her absences is unreasonable.
Jones' absences were due to a bout of illness that was beyond her control, the court said.
Jones' employer knew why she initially left the workplace when Jones notified a ranking supervisor, the court said.
"As for the lack of a doctor's note, we hold that Jones's inability to produce the doctor's excuse her employer requested does not amount to misconduct in this case," the court said in an opinion written by Judge Brandon Harrison.
Thus, the board's denial of unemployment benefits to Jones was overturned and the case is sent back to the board for an award of retirement benefits, the appeals court said.
Judges Rita Gruber and Rhonda Wood agreed with Harrison.
Metro on 08/28/2014