In a resounding victory for the unemployed and their advocates, the Washington Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that people who walk off jobs when employers make work conditions “unbearable” may well qualify for state unemployment insurance.
The 9-0 ruling came in the case of two western Washington women, Sara Spain and Kusum Batey who quit their jobs in response to what they felt were abusive bosses.
At issue was a stark disagreement between the Washington Employment Security Department and lawyers representing the two women about the state legislature’s intent in 2003
when it added several examples to the unemployment insurance law illustrating “good cause” reasons for which a worker could resign his or her job but still be eligible for unemployment insurance.
Whereas the state agency argued that the list should be construed as exclusive, lawyers for Spain and Batey argued that even with the recent amendments to the law, the legislature has never actually said it intended “good cause” to not include working conditions like those the two women say they faced.
“Both Spain and Batey tells us they left their jobs because they found their employers unbearable,” Justice Tom Chambers wrote for the court. “Spain suffered daily verbal abuse. Batey left her job with a battered women’s shelter after sharply disagreeing with management on how their clients should be treated, among other things. Importantly, no trier of fact has found that Spain and Batey did not leave their jobs because their employers were abusive, which historically has been a nondisqualifying reason for voluntarily leaving employment without losing eligibility for benefits.”
The court agreed with the advocates for the two women, that the legislature has never confined the definition of “good cause” in the law to an exclusive list of circumstances, including those that went into effect in 2004.
While the court’s decision does not automatically qualify either woman for the unemployment benefits they sought, it does require the Employment Security Department to reconsider their applications and “determine, based upon the individual facts of the case…whether these employees had good cause to leave their jobs.”
Marcus Lampson, the Unemployment Law Project attorney who argued on behalf of Sara Spain, said the ruling provides an important clarification of state law for those who may find themselves in similar positions.
“There is a misperception,” Lampson said, “that if you quit your job, you’re automatically disqualified for unemployment insurance.”
With this ruling, he said, the court is saying that “people who quit their jobs can show they had good reasons for doing so” and that he and other lawyers representing clients in similar circumstances can now move those complaints to hearings where they’ll have a chance to show “good cause.”
Posted June 19th
