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

Subject: James R. Wilke (Hearing No. 97402675AP) v. State of Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission and East Town TV/Appliance-The Service Connection, Case 98-CV-34 (Wis. Cir. Ct., Waushara Co., August 26, 1998)

Digest Codes:  MC 630.09

The employe worked for two months as a service technician for the employer, an electronics retail business. On two occasions he was observed leaving work at 5:00 p.m., but found to have written a 5:15 p.m. departure time on his time cards. When the employer confronted the employe about these discrepancies he had no reasonable explanation, so he was discharged.

The employe subsequently obtained documentation from a psychologist that he was dyslexic, and he claimed this condition cause him to mismark the time cards. However, this explanation was not credible for several reasons. He claimed that he actually left at 5:15 p.m. on the days in question, but assuming that the employer's witnesses were correct that he left at 5:00 p.m., he must have misread his watch due to the dyslexia. However, his watch has lines for the five-minute intervals rather than numbers, and there was no evidence other than his vague testimony that he "sometimes" misread the watch. He alternatively argued that on each occasion he meant to write "5:00" instead of "5:15" on the time cards, but again his dyslexia caused the errors. This assertion was inconsistent with his testimony that he left at 5:15 p.m., and is not credible given that numbers were substituted rather than transposed. The appeal tribunal and the commission found misconduct.

Held: In an oral decision the court affirmed the finding of misconduct for the reasons noted above, also citing the deference due the commission in accordance with the standard of judicial review.

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

[ Search UC Decisions ] - [ UC Digest - Main Index ] - [ UC Legal Resources ] - [ LIRC Home Page ]