Miami, FL
Employment and labor Lawyer at Miami, FL
Practice Areas: Employment & Labor, Immigration, Real Estate
OUTCOME: Client won appeal.
The Court held that although the claimant’s action was in violation of a stated company policy and may have justified her discharge from employment, “such conduct does not necessarily preclude entitlem ... ent to unemployment benefits.”
OUTCOME: Client won appeal.
The claimant quit her job because she was sexually harassed by employer’s owner. She repeatedly asked the owner to stop this conduct, and complained to her immediate supervisor, all to no avail. The c ... laimant remained on the job because she had a small child and needed the income. However, when the situation got worse, she could no longer tolerate the owner’s conduct and she finally quit. On these facts, the Appeals Referee denied unemployment benefits stating that it was not reasonable for the claimant to have stayed on the job and not have called the police, but on appeal, the Florida Unemployment Commission and the District Court of Appeals both held that “[t]here is no evidence to support the referee's conclusion that victims of sexual harassment frequently go to the police to complain about a hostile work environment or seek psychological or medical treatment. Additionally, sexual harassment can continue for several years before the victim makes public her complaint.... Considering a job is usually a person's economic lifeline, the claimant's failure to contact outside authorities regarding her complaint cannot be called unreasonable or inherently improbable.”
OUTCOME: Client won appeal.
The issue before the Court was whether a single incident of wrongdoing by the claimant, which led the employer to terminate her job of 14 years, rises to the level of misconduct under the statute. The ... Court held that it was an isolated incident and a result of poor judgment and reversed the Unemployment Commission’s decision to deny unemployment benefits.
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