Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission --
Summary of Wisconsin Court Decision relating to Unemployment Insurance

Subject: Rick G. Larson (Hrg. No. 95601217MW) v. LIRC & Clean Power, Inc., Case 95-CV-006538 (Wis. Cir. Ct., Milwaukee Co., March 5, 1996) Court of Appeals, District 1, Case No. 96-1105, December 30, 1997 (unpublished).

Please note that Wis. Stat. § 809.23(3) provides that an unpublished decision of the Court of Appeals is of no precedential value and for that reason may not be cited in any court in this state as precedent or authority. Summaries of unpublished Court of Appeals decisions are included in this collection as an informational service only, and their use contrary to 809.23(3) is not encouraged.

Digest Codes: VL 1080.22

The employer is a cleaning service which hired the employe on November 4, 1992, in the position of "Warehouse Assistant/Equipment Repair." The duties of the job were not detailed at the time of hire, but one of the assigned duties contemplated was to assist the employer in clean up work when no one else was available to do it. The employer trained the employe in the proper method of cleaning up human blood. The employe received this training within the first week of his employment and again after about four months on the job. On December 12, 1994, the employer ordered the employe to clean up blood spots in a service van but the employe refused. The employer sent him home for the day and gave him a written warning for insubordination. On January 25, 1995, the employe asked the employer whether he was going to receive a raise, which he believed he should receive for being available to perform cleaning work. The employer told him he was not going to receive a raise and the employe responded by stating that he was quitting.

The commission found that the employe quit but not for good cause attributable to the employer, noting that the employe received training for blood clean up, and that the employer provided all the necessary safety equipment and precautions for such work.

The circuit court affirmed the commission’s decision.

Held: The finding of quit without good cause is affirmed. Credible evidence demonstrates that the employe was trained for and expected to perform blood clean up duties. The employe’s assertions that the training was inadequate were not made at the hearing, and they cannot be introduced at the appellate level.

Please note that this is a summary prepared by staff of the commission, not a verbatim reproduction of the court decision.

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