Ball v. Administrator

No. S-98-037 (Ohio Ct. App. Dec. 31, 1998). ; Clearinghouse Number: 52200

Description

Employee Who Took Leave to Care for Sick Child Was Discharged Without Good Cause

Abstract

The Ohio Court of Appeals held that, pursuant to employer’s progressive disciplinary policy, employer did not have just cause to discharge appellant employee from her job operating a grinder after she accrued two major violations in a one-year period. Employer asserted that employee committed a major violation by making excess scrap and that employee’s two minor violations—two instances of tardiness and one failure to make a proper family leave request—constituted a second major violation under its policy. The Ohio Bureau of Employment Services determined that employee was discharged for violation of company rules, and the trial court affirmed. The appellate court found that employer had improperly reprimanded appellant for violation of its family leave policy. Under the policy an employee unable to return to work for five consecutive days may be granted leave if the employee files a leave request before the consecutive absences exceed five days. Appellant had stayed home for four days to care for her sick child, worked one day, and stayed home an additional four days. She was unable to file a leave request on the fifth day because employer’s office was locked at the end of her shift. After returning to work, she was reprimanded for violation of the leave policy, even though she was never absent for more than four consecutive days. The court found that appellant could not have been expected to know that an erroneous verbal reprimand would eventually form the foundation for her termination and then the denial of unemployment compensation. Concluding that the leave reprimand was improper, the court held that employer lacked an adequate basis for appellant’s termination and that she was discharged without good cause.

Additional Information

Attorney Information
Appellant represented by Steve Robins, Legal Services of Northwest Ohio, 121 N. Arch St., Fremont, OH; 419.334.8899.
Docket Date
1998-12-31 00:00:00+00:00