Dept.
of Labor & Industry v. UCBR – Cmwlth. Court – June 8, 2016 – unreported* memorandum
opinion
The
Court upheld that Board’s decision, which found that claimant was exempt from
the registration requirement of 401(b)(1)(l), 43 P.S. 801(b)(1)(l), because she
had been recalled to work. The court
rejected the Dept.’s argument that its regulation, 34 Pa. Code 65,11(g)(2),
which required a recall date in writing, prevailed of the statute, 43 P.S.
801(b)(5), which did not. The employer
notice of recall in this case was oral, not written.
Section
401(b)(6) authorizes the Board to “waive or alter” the registration requirement
where “compliance with such requirements would be oppressive or ... would be
inconsistent with the purposes of this act.” 43 P.S. §801(b)(6). Stated
otherwise, an untimely registration is not “a per se violation that
automatically disqualifies a claimant from unemployment.” Department of Labor
and Industry, 131 A.3d at 600. The
court agrees with the “the Board’s case-by-case approach to evaluating whether
a claimant had good cause for failing to timely register for employment search
services under Section 401(b)(1)(i) of the Law” and to exercise its judgment
accordingly. Id. at 602.
The
Board’s discretion to “waive or alter” the registration requirement “is aligned
with the remedial and humanitarian objectives of the Law, as set out in 43 P.S.
752.
------------------------------
*An unreported
Commonwealth Court case may not be cited binding precedent but can be cited for
its persuasive value. See 210 Pa.
Code § 69.414(b) and Pa. R.A.P.
3716
If the case is
old, the link may have become stale and may not work, but you can use the case
name, court, and date to find the opinion in another source (e.g., Westlaw,
Lexis, Google Scholar)
