Opinion
Argued April 2, 1979
July 26, 1979.
Unemployment compensation — Voluntary termination — Coerced resignation — Unemployment Compensation Law, Act 1936, December 5, P.L. (1937) 2897 — Wilful misconduct — Burden of proof — Deficient qualifications.
1. An employe who resigns may nonetheless be properly found not to have voluntarily terminated her employment precluding her receipt of benefits under the Unemployment Compensation Law, Act 1936, December 5, P.L. (1937) 2897, when a refusal of her employer's request that she resign would have resulted in her discharge. [454]
2. When an employe resigns in order to avoid imminent discharge, it is proper in determining the eligibility of the employe for unemployment compensation benefits to treat the case as if it involved a discharge placing the burden upon the employer resisting the payment of unemployment compensation benefits to prove wilful misconduct on the part of the employe. [454-5]
3. A person discharged because of a lack of administrative experience and educational qualifications is not discharged for wilful misconduct precluding her receipt of unemployment compensation benefits. [454-5]
Argued April 2, 1979, before Judges CRUMLISH, JR., MENCER and ROGERS, sitting as a panel of three.
Appeal, No. 2047 C.D. 1978, from the Order of the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review in case of In Re: Claim of Renee B. Ricks, No. B-162144.
Application to the Bureau of Employment Security for unemployment compensation benefits. Application denied. Applicant appealed. Benefits awarded by referee. Employer appealed to the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review. Award affirmed. Employer appealed to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. Held: Affirmed.
Larry A. Colston, with him McNeal and Colston, for petitioner.
Reese F. Couch, Assistant Attorney General, with him J. Justin Blewitt, Acting Attorney General, and Robert S. Robbins, for respondents.
The Unemployment Compensation Board of Review (Board) affirmed a referee's award of benefits to Renee B. Ricks. Her employer, the Philadelphia Parent Child Center, Inc. (PPCC), appealed. We affirm the Board.
The first of two contentions PPCC urges is that Ricks "voluntarily" terminated her employment without a necessitous or compelling reason. Whether a person has voluntarily terminated his employment is a question of law. That a worker intends to leave his job does not of its own mean that the leaving was voluntary for the purposes of Section 402(b)(1) of the Law. The totality of circumstances must be considered.
Section 402(b)(1) of the Unemployment Compensation Law. Act of December 5, 1936, Second Ex. Sess., P.L. (1937) 2897, as amended, 43 P. S. § 802(b)(1) (hereinafter cited as Law).
See footnote 1, supra.
When therefore the pressure of real not imaginary, substantial not trifling, reasonable not whimsical, circumstances compel the decision to leave employment, the decision is voluntary in the sense that the worker has willed it but involuntary because outward pressures have compelled it.
Sturdevant Unemployment Compensation Case, 158 Pa. Super. 548, 557, 45 A.2d 898, 903 (1946).
The record discloses that Ricks was called to her supervisor's office and told to sign a letter of resignation. Prior to that time, she neither had seen the letter nor had she requested its preparation. What's more, she had no intention of resigning but did so because she thought refusal would precipitate her discharge. This suspicion was later confirmed by her employer. In our judgment, this was not a "voluntary termination".
PPCC's second argument is that the Board erred as a matter of law in disposing of the claim under Section 402(e). This is without merit. Where a claimant technically resigns in order to avoid imminent discharge, the Board may properly treat the case as if it were a discharge for willful misconduct in determining eligibility for benefits. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review v. Simone, 24 Pa. Commw. 248, 355 A.2d 614 (1976). The burden of establishing willful misconduct is on the employer. In this record it is undisputed that Rick's work performance was satisfactory but that her deficient administrative experience and educational qualifications prompted her discharge. We can find no evidence sufficient in law to warrant the denial of benefits to Ricks.
Section 402(e) of the Law, 43 P. S. § 802(e).
PPCC was aware that Ricks lacked a degree in early childhood training when it hired her.
Accordingly, we
ORDER
AND NOW, this 26th day of July, 1979, the order of the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review awarding benefits to Renee B. Ricks is affirmed.