Unemployment Insurance

Web Library Topic - Supervision

Statutes

§ 8‑73‑108(5)(e)(II), C.R.S. 2005

(5)(e) Subject to the maximum reduction consistent with federal law, and insofar as consistent with interstate agreements, if a separation from employment occurs for any of the following reasons, the employer from whom such separation occurred shall not be charged for benefits which are attributable to such employment and, because any payment of benefits which are attributable to such employment out of the fund as defined in section 8-70-103 (13) shall be deemed to have an adverse effect on such employer's account in such fund, no payment of such benefits shall be made from such fund:

(II) Quitting employment because of dissatisfaction with a supervisor with no evidence to indicate that the supervision is other than that reasonably to be expected in the proper performance of work.

§ 8‑73‑108(4)(c), C.R.S. 2005

(4) An individual separated from a job shall be given a full award of benefits if any of the following reasons and pertinent conditions related thereto are determined by the division to have existed. The determination of whether or not the separation from employment shall result in a full award of benefits shall be the responsibility of the division. The following reasons shall be considered, along with any other factors that may be pertinent to such determination:

(c) Unsatisfactory or hazardous working conditions when so determined by the division. In determining whether or not working conditions are unsatisfactory for an individual, the degree of risk involved to his health, safety, and morals, his physical fitness and prior training, his experience and prior earnings, the distance of the work from his residence, and the working conditions of workers engaged in the same or similar work for the same and other employers in the locality shall be considered. For the purpose of this paragraph (c), “hazardous working conditions” means such conditions, as are determined by the division to exist, that could result in a danger to the physical or mental well-being of the worker. In any such determination the division shall consider, but shall not be limited to a consideration of, the following: The safety measures used or the lack thereof and the condition of equipment or lack of proper equipment. No work shall be considered hazardous if the working conditions surrounding a worker's employment are the same or substantially the same as the working conditions generally prevailing among workers performing the same or similar work for other employers engaged in the same or similar type of activity.

Cases

Gatewood v. Russell, 29 Colo. App. 11, 478 P.2d 679 (1970)

"[T]he reason for voluntary termination of employment must be for objective rather than personal reasons."  In this case, although the claimant asserted he quit because of harassment, those circumstances were found to be a personality conflict with his supervisor.  Therefore, because the claimant quit for subjective personal reasons, the claimant was disqualified from the receipt of unemployment benefits.

Musgrave v. Industrial Claim Appeals Office, 762 P.2d 686 (Colo. App. 1988)

Although the employer could have acted more reasonably under the circumstances, that did not justify an award for the claimant who quit because of her personal dissatisfaction with the employer's otherwise reasonable actions.

Rodco Systems, Inc. v. Industrial Claim Appeals Office, 981 P.2d 699 (Colo. App. 1999)

Whether a claimant's working conditions were "unsatisfactory or hazardous" for the claimant is to be determined using an objective standard.  The issue is whether a reasonable person in the claimant's position would have found the working conditions so detrimental to his or her physical or mental well-being that resignation was warranted.  Here, the court upheld an award to a claimant who resigned after she learned the employer's president was altering insurance certificates and falsely representing the employer's insurance coverage to a prospective client.

Back to Top  |  Library Index  |  ICAO Home Page  |  CDLE Home Page