Willow Valley Retirement Community v. UCBR - Cmwlth. Court - 11-12-08 - unreported memorandum decision
http://origin-www.courts.state.pa.us/OpPosting/Cwealth/out/188CD08_11-12-08.pdf
Claimant testified that the ER vice-president/COO told her that she "needed to show more emotion and use the feminine side of her personality in order to improve her business relationships." This evidence was unchallenged by the employer.
The court held that these comments "are sexually discriminatory and degrading on their face. Claimant reasonably understood his comments to mean that she should be less strong and play up her sexuality in the performance of her job." The comments "went beyond conduct that must be tolerated in a work place and produced circumstances which would compel a reasonable person to terminate employment."
Claimant acted reasonably in resigning, without going through regular complaint channels. She "believed that there was no recourse to remedy the situation," since the vice president/COO was the second highest person in the organization.
Her attempt to rescind her resignation after the employer took steps to replace her is irrelevant, because this was a voluntary quit with cause of a necessitous and compelling reason. Because "Claimant has demonstrated circumstances which produced real and substantial pressure to terminate employment, Claimant only needed to show that she made a reasonable attempt to preserve her employment relationship or show that such action was futile to remain eligible for benefits."
