Dive Brief:

• A Minnesota Court of Appeals recently reversed a lower level judge’s determination that a woman had actively quit her job when she had taken requested time off work to deal with her family's homelessness.
• According to a Minnesota Public Radio report, the employee, Nita Posey, worked for Securitas Security Services as a data entry clerk at U.S. Bank. She applied for and was denied unemployment benefits because Securitas said she quit her job and the law judge agreed.
• Posey requested and was granted time off when one of the children wound up in the ER and was quarantined for 24 hours. She was next evicted from her home. When she called the bank, her manager didn’t answer. She then sent a text message that said she had a family emergency and would be out of work. She received an “Okay” from her manager. But after a week, she got a letter saying she was out of a job.

Dive Insight:

Part of a three-judge panel, Judge Jim Randall said the woman had not failed a long-standing “free-will choice” test which defines when an employee quits. Records show she was good at her job, and she kept in touch with her employers every time she needed PTO for medical reasons.

The Appeals Court saw things her way, saying she did not “quit” employment at U.S. Bank in the statutory sense of the word. She was never “employed” by U.S. Bank, because she worked for Securitas.

“An employee cannot quit under Minn. Stat. § 268.095, subd. 2(a), unless the employee makes the decision to end the employment. An employee cannot ‘unintentionally’ quit employment,” Judge Randall wrote in the court's decision.