KNOWLES AFFILIATES, INC., APPELLANT,
v.
THE FLORIDA UNEMPLOYMENT APPEALS COMMISSION AND JAKE GARCIA, APPELLEES

Fla. 3d DCA | 2007-10-10
No. 3D07-594
Wells, J.
967 So. 2d 362 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (2007)

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Synopsis

The court affirmed the unemployment appeals commission's decision, holding that an employer must demonstrate willful violations or careless acts showing substantial disregard for employer interests to deny unemployment benefits for work-related misconduct.


Holding

An employer must prove willful violations or careless acts demonstrating substantial disregard for the employer's interests to deny unemployment compensation for misconduct.


Headnotes

[1] Misconduct sufficient to disqualify an employee from unemployment compensation requires willful violations or careless acts demonstrating substantial disregard for the em…

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Key Quotes

“An employer must show more than an employee's inefficiency, unsatisfactory conduct, or failure to perform. Inefficiency, unsatisfactory conduct, inability, inadvertence, and ordinary negligence do not constitute misconduct connected with work.”

Spink v. Unemployment Appeals Comm'n, establishing the high threshold for misconduct in unemployment cases

Facts & Procedural History

Knowles Affiliates sought to deny unemployment benefits to a former employee based on alleged misconduct connected with work.…

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Opinion of the Court
WELLS, Judge.

WELLS, Judge.

Affirmed. See § 443.036(29), Fla. Stat. (2006) (providing that only willful violations or careless acts of such a degree or recurrence as demonstrate a substantial disregard for an employer’s interests are sufficient to support denial of unemployment compensation benefits for misconduct connected with a former employee’s work); Spink v. Unemployment Appeals Comm’n, 798 So. 2d 899, 901-02 (Fla. 5th DCA 2001) (“An employer must show more than an employee’s inefficiency, unsatisfactory conduct, or failure to perform. Inefficiency, unsatisfactory conduct, inability, inadvertence, and ordinary negligence do not constitute misconduct connected with work.... Poor judgment is not misconduct. The failure to follow rules or a violation of the employer’s rules is generally not misconduct, but rather poor judgment.”) (citations omitted); Webb v. Rice, 693 So. 2d 1109, 1111 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997) (“Courts should narrowly construe the disqualification provisions [of chapter 443], and should liberally construe the statute in favor of the claimant when determining whether a claimant’s actions constitute misconduct in accordance with its remedial nature.”); Ritenour v. Unemployment Appeals Comm’n, 570 So. 2d 1106, 1108 (Fla. 5th DCA 1990) (“Reaching a different conclusion of law from, that of the referee is within the scope of review of the commission.”).


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