#substantial fault

DWD and LIRC continue to ignore court precedent on substantial fault

After the Supreme Court decision in Operton v. LIRC, 2017 WI 46, and an appeals court decision in Easterling v. LIRC, 2017 WI App 18, the Department of Workforce Development took no action to change its practices and follow these binding court decisions. Accordingly, parties needed to appeal their initial determinations in order to get unemployment law to be followed.

It is becoming apparent,…

Despite Operton and Easterling, no change with substantial fault at DWD

The Easterling and especially Operton decisions should indicate that inadvertent — i.e., careless or unintentional mistakes — on the job should not disqualify someone from unemployment benefits.

The Department, however, is not happy with these outcomes. At the Advisory Council’s 16 March 2017 meeting, the following public comments were made about Easterling:

Ms. Knutson stated the decision in…

Today, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held oral argument in Operton about whether substantial fault disqualifies employees from receiving unemployment benefits because of their inadvertent mistakes and what standard of deferral courts owe the Labor and Industry Review Commission in deciding unemployment cases.

Substantial fault is defined in Wis. Stat. § 108.04(5g)(a) as:

those acts or omissions of…

Labor Radio features on unemployment law

WORT‘s Labor Radio has run feature stories on unemployment law the past two weeks covering substantial fault and concealment. The clinic website has the details.

The financial impact of substantial fault

A document available on this blog is cited by the Appeals Court in Operton v. LIRC, namely the original Department proposal for substantial fault — D12-01.

The appeals court observes at n.5 on p.6 of its decision that this document does not quite match the version of D12-01supplied by the Commission in its briefing. Even though both versions are dated 24 October 2012, the copy produced by the…

“Substantial” changes to substantial fault

Last week, the Appeals Court issued a decision in Operton v. LIRC that significantly changes how the Labor and Industry Review Commission and the Department of Workforce Development have been applying the substantial fault disqualification put into affect in 2014 by the Legislature over the rejection of the Advisory Council.

The Commission had previously held that substantial fault equals…