No. 981318-CA | Utah Ct. App. | Jun 24, 1999
OPINION
¶ 1 Petitioner SOS Staffing Services, Inc. seeks judicial review of the Workforce Appeals Board’s decisions upholding the Administrative Law Judge’s determination that claimants James E. Gray and Michael Low-rey were entitled to unemployment compensation. SOS asserts that the Board erred because claimants voluntarily terminated their employment. Because we conclude the Board erroneously applied the governing law, we set aside the Board’s decisions and remand for further proceedings.
BACKGROUND
¶ 2 The facts are essentially undisputed.
¶ 3 In early 1998, Gray, an SOS employee, was assigned to work at Granite Furniture. From January 6, 1998, through January 16, 1998, Gray performed this assignment until a temporarily absent Granite employee returned to work. Upon completion of this assignment, Gray did not inform SOS of his availability for future work and received no further assignments. Indeed, he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada.
¶ 5 Claimants both filed for unemployment compensation, which the Department of Workforce Services' granted. On SOS’s appeal of the Department’s initial decision, the ALJ' found that, although SOS expected day laborers to report their availability, neither Gray nor Lowrey made such contact. Nonetheless, the AUJ determined that the employment ended when the claimants completed their respective work assignments and that their separations from employment were due to a reduction in force, making SOS liable for its share of benefit costs.
¶ 6 SOS appealed the ALJ’s rulings to the Workforce Appeals Board, arguing that claimants agreed to report their availability and that their failure to do so constituted a voluntary resignation from SOS. SOS relied on a clause in claimants’ employment applications that provides: “I agree to report my availability weekly, or daily if assigned to jobs on a daily basis. Failure to adhere to this policy could constitute a voluntary resignation from SOS on my part.” The Board found that this provision was in claimants’ signed employment applications. Nonetheless, the Board agreed with the ALJ, adopting his findings and conclusions, and held that claimants’ employment ended when their respective work assignments ended and that their “separation” was due to a reduction in force. The Board concluded that the availability of additional assignments was irrelevant because SOS had not actually offered these assignments to claimants and that, even if SOS had so offered, such assignments would constitute “new work.”
¶ 7 One member of the Workforce Appeals Board dissented, agreeing with SOS that claimants voluntarily quit their employment when they failed to report their availability or otherwise request reassignment. The dissenter concluded that claimants were not entitled to benefits absent a showing they quit for good cause or that a denial of benefits would be “contrary to equity and good [conscience].”
ISSUE AND STANDARD OF REVIEW
¶ 8 SOS disputes the Board’s conclusion that claimants were discharged pursuant to a reduction in force, arguing claimants voluntarily quit their employment by failing to report their availability for future assignments and moving out of state.
ANALYSIS
¶ 9 “[A] claimant is ineligible for [unemployment] benefits if ‘the claimant left work voluntarily without good cause.’” Professional Staff Management, 953 P.2d 76" court="Utah Ct. App." date_filed="1998-02-12" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/professional-staff-management-inc-v-department-of-employment-security-1379192?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="1379192">953 P.2d at 77 (quoting Utah Code Ann. § 35A-4-405(l)(a) (1997)).
Voluntarily leaving work means that the' employee severed the employment relationship as contrasted to a separation initiated by the employer. This is true regardless of how compelling the claimant’s reasons were for making the decision to leave the work. Voluntary leaving will include not only leaving existing work, but also the failure to return to work after a lay-off, suspension, or period of absence. Voluntary leaving also includes failure to renew a contract as in the case of a school teacher or athlete.
Utah Code Admin. P. R994-405-101 (Supp. 1997) (emphasis added).
¶ 10 The undisputed facts show that claimants, not SOS, severed the employment relationship. To continue receiving assignments, claimants needed only to report that they had completed their current assignments and were available for a new placement.
¶ 11 The Board’s position seems to rest upon the fundamentally flawed premise that SOS’s clients, rather than SOS itself, actually employed claimants. Thus, when the clients no. longer needed a particular SOS “temp” for a particular job, the temp’s employment ended due to a reduction in force. The Board’s position becomes inconsistent, though, when it seeks to attribute that reduction in force to SOS. For purposes of employment security, SOS — not its clients— employed claimants, in an arrangement where claimants performed various temporary assignments of varying duration for various SOS clients at various locations. This employment relationship did not end simply because one assignment ended. Just as claimants’ completion of earlier individual assignments did not terminate the relationship, completion of what they unilaterally decided would be their final assignment was likewise not a separation resulting from a reduction in force. Rather, the separation occurred when claimants made the decisions to no longer work for SOS and to quit calling in for new placements, thus closing the only practicable avenue for receiving new assignments. See supra, note 5. Awarding benefits in the face of this voluntary termination of employment runs counter to a fundamental purpose for which the Employment Security Act was enacted. See Utah Code Admin. P. R994-102-101 (Supp.1997) (“One of the purposes of the Employment Security
¶ 12 Notwithstanding the Board’s and the ALJ’s findings that claimants’ employment contracts with SOS required claimants to report their availability, the Board now suggests that insufficient proof of the contracts below prevents this court from enforcing the terms of the contracts. Our decision, however, does not merely enforce the contracts. Rather, our decision is the rational result of the undisputed evidence showing the nature of SOS’s and claimants’ employment relationship. The contractual clause merely.confirms the natural result of. these relationships; it does not create the result. Each claimant’s failure to report his availability for an additional assignment — the only means by which SOS would know the employee was again available for an assignment — shows the employee chose to sever the employment relationship. Any doubt in this regard is dispelled by claimants’ departure from the state. Accordingly, our decision would be the same with or without an explicit contractual provision stating that SOS may treat an employee’s failure to call in as a voluntary resignation.
¶ 13 Of course, this is not to say that no SOS employee who leaves employment by failing to report availability and moving away will ever be entitled to unemployment benefits. Such employees who can show they quit for good cause or that denial of benefits would be contrary to equity and good conscience may nonetheless receive benefits. See Utah Code Ann. § 35A-4-405(1)(a) & (b) (1997); Robinson, 827 P.2d 250" court="Utah Ct. App." date_filed="1992-02-13" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/robinson-v-department-of-employment-security-1199074?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="1199074">827 P.2d at 253-54; Allen, 781 P.2d 888" court="Utah Ct. App." date_filed="1989-10-17" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/allen-v-department-of-employment-security-2617807?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="2617807">781 P.2d at 891. However, claimants did not pursue such a theory, nor did they present any evidence of this sort to the ALJ or the Board.
CONCLUSION
¶ 14 Because the undisputed facts clearly show that claimants had control over whether their employment with SOS continued, and that they, rather than SOS, severed their employment relationships of their own volition, the Board erred in concluding that the termination of claimants’ employment resulted from a reduction in force. Consequently, we set aside the Board’s decisions and remand the matter for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
¶ 15 WE CONCUR: PAMELA T. GREENWOOD, Associate Presiding Judge, and NORMAN H. JACKSON, Judge.
. Notwithstanding the findings of the AU and Board to the contrary, the Board now disputes the existence and terms of claimants' contractual promise to inform SOS of their availability for new assignments. As discussed below, our decision is not dependent on these determinations and, thus, any disputed facts surrounding them are inconsequential.
. Depending on its nature and pay, "new work” can sometimes be declined without jeopardizing eligibility for unemployment benefits. See Utah Code Admin. P. R994-405-311 (Supp.1997). The Board did not explain how the hypothesized assignments would necessarily qualify as new work of a sort claimants would be free to reject.
. SOS also argues the Board applied an incorrect definition of "new work” in evaluating claimants’ potential future assignments with SOS. Because we conclude that claimants voluntarily quit their employment with SOS, the existence and nature of possible future assignments is irrelevant, and we therefore do not reach this issue.
.A specific statutory provision may require a different approach. For example, in workers’ compensation cases, application of law to fact is reviewed for reasonableness. See, e.g., Osman Home Improvement v. Industrial Comm’n, 958 P.2d 240" court="Utah Ct. App." date_filed="1998-04-30" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/osman-home-improvement-v-industrial-commission-1426855?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="1426855">958 P.2d 240, 242-43 & n. 4 (Utah Ct.App.1998); Caporoz v. Labor Comm’n, 945 P.2d 141" court="Utah Ct. App." date_filed="1997-08-28" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/caporoz-v-labor-commission-1198255?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="1198255">945 P.2d 141, 143 (Utah Ct.App.1997).
. The practical requirements of SOS’s business require that its employees take the initiative in reporting their availability. It is much more feasible for each individual employee, of whom there are literally thousands, to call SOS when available and desiring work titan for SOS to call every employee, each day or week, to ascertain whether they are available or not, and, if available, whether they desire a new assignment, wish a few days off, or want to end the employment relationship.
. The rule then in effect provided as follows:
Since the claimant is the moving party in a voluntary separation, he is the best source of information with regard to the reasons for the quit. The claimant has the burden of proof and must show that he had “good cause” for quitting or that he meets the requirements for allowance under the equity and good conscience provision before benefits can be allowed.
Utah Code Admin. P. R994-405-105 (Supp. 1997).