Skidmore v. Dep't of Labor
Skidmore v. Dep't of Labor
Opinion of the Court
¶ 1. This is an appeal by Margaret Skidmore, claimant, from a finding by the Vermont Employment Security Board that she was monetarily ineligible for unemployment benefits. We conclude that the Department of Labor's Unemployment Insurance and Wage Division (Unemployment Division)
¶ 2. The relevant facts found by the Employment Security Board are not at issue. Claimant left work on April 10, 2013, due to an employment-related injury, and has not engaged in full-time employment since then. Because of her injury, claimant received workers' compensation benefits in the form of temporary total disability wage replacement benefits. The temporary total disability benefits aspect of her workers' compensation claim ended on March 21, 2015. Claimant continued to receive workers' compensation benefits but only for the permanent partial impairment resulting from her workplace injury, pursuant to 21 V.S.A. § 648.
¶ 3. On May 18, 2015, claimant called the Unemployment Division to inquire about unemployment compensation benefits. She insists that her call was not intended to establish a claim for unemployment benefits. On the call, claimant provided the Unemployment Division with her Social Security number and other information that the Division considers necessary to open a claim. Based on the call, the Unemployment Division opened a claim that same day and made a finding that claimant was not monetarily eligible for unemployment benefits. Although the Unemployment Division issued a monetary determination, claimant claims she never received it. In December 2015, claimant and her employer reached a settlement agreement-a Form 16 agreement-for the remainder of her claim, which the Department's Workers' Compensation Division approved. See Department of Labor, Form 16 Compromise Agreement (July 2014), http://labor.vermont.gov/wordpress/wp-content/uploads//Form16FillIn.pdf [https://perma.cc/CV5U-88ND]. All of claimant's workers' compensation benefits terminated in December 2015.
¶ 4. After the parties agreed in December 2015 to settle the remainder of claimant's workers' compensation entitlements, she contacted the Unemployment Division on February 2, 2016, in anticipation of her workers' compensation benefits ending.
¶ 5. On May 19, 2016, claimant filed a transitional claim
¶ 6. This Court's review of decisions by the Employment Security Board is "highly deferential." 863 To Go, Inc. v. Dep't of Labor,
¶ 7. Vermont's Unemployment Compensation Law "is a remedial law, having benevolent objectives, and must be given liberal construction." Fleece on Earth v. Dep't of Emp't & Training,
¶ 8. An unemployed individual is entitled to receive unemployment benefits only if the individual can establish-among other requirements-that he or she: (1) has registered for work at an employment office;
*1213(2) has made a claim for benefits by following the procedures outlined in 21 V.S.A. § 1346 ; (3) is able to work or, if he or she is unable to work, has provided documentation that his or her inability to work is the product of an illness or disability; (4) has been totally or partially unemployed for a waiting period of a week prior to any week for which the individual claims benefits; and (5) qualifies for a weekly benefits in accordance with 21 V.S.A. § 1338. See 21 V.S.A. § 1343(a). Under 21 V.S.A. § 1346(a), "[c]laims for benefits shall be made in accordance with such regulations as the Board may prescribe. Each employer shall post and maintain printed statements of such regulations...." Pursuant to that section, employers must post an Unemployment Benefits Poster, which instructs employees to call the Department of Labor's Unemployment Insurance initial claims line. Vt. Dep't of Labor, Form A24-Unemployment Insurance, http://labor.vermont.gov/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/A24-Unemployment-Insurance-Poster.pdf [https://perma.cc/3LKJ-GUKX]; see also Vt. Dep't of Labor, Employer Information Manual 37, http://labor.vermont.gov/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Employer-Information-Manual.pdf [https://perma.cc/RZU5-EUYV]. Neither party to this appeal disputes that the employer here complied with § 1346.
¶ 9. When an individual calls the initial claims line and provides the Unemployment Division with responses to a sequence of requests, including a request for the individual's Social Security number, the Unemployment Division registers the individual's claim as filed and the individual is considered a claimant.
¶ 10. When the Unemployment Division receives a request for benefits, it makes an initial monetary determination in accordance with the statutory definitions of "base period" and "valid claim." See 21 V.S.A. §§ 1301(17), (23) ; 1343(d). As the *1214Board explained in its decision in this case, there are four methods-monetary methods one through four-for calculating monetary eligibility, all of which are "predicated on a claimant's attachment to the labor force."
¶ 11. In order to establish eligibility, a claimant filing in 2015 had to satisfy two initial requirements: that he or she earned (1) at least $2386 in wages in any quarter,
¶ 12. Under monetary method one, the base period is "the first four of the most recently completed five calendar quarters immediately preceding the first day of a claimant's benefit year."
¶ 13. Here, the Unemployment Division initially considered monetary methods one through three and concluded that, under each of those eligibility calculations, claimant was ineligible for unemployment benefits.
¶ 14. Thus, as the Board noted in its decision below, even if the Unemployment Division had the legal authority to grant claimant the relief she seeks on appeal-a determination that her May 2015 call to the Unemployment Division did not constitute a claim for benefits and instead establishing a claim filing date of February 2, 2016-she "would not have been monetarily eligible for unemployment benefits under any of the four monetary methods provided by law." See 21 V.S.A. §§ 1301(17)(B), 1343(d). In other words, had the Board calculated claimant's benefit period according to the date on which she argues she first intended to open a claim, "[i]nstead of $5447.00 in unemployment benefits, [she] would have received nothing" because February 2, 2016 was more than six months after March 20, 2015.
¶ 15. Although the Unemployment Compensation Act "is a remedial law, having benevolent objectives, and must be given liberal construction," Fleece on Earth,
Affirmed.
Because claimant dealt with the Department of Labor concerning both her workers' compensation and unemployment benefits claims, we refer to the specific divisions of the Department for clarity.
According to claimant, she called the Department to find out what forms she needed to file in order to receive unemployment benefits once her workers' compensation benefits terminated. She was given another number to call, which apparently was the number for the Unemployment Division.
A transitional claim is "an application for determination of continued eligibility for benefits which initiates the establishment of a new benefit year without interruption in the payment of benefits." Rules of the Vt. Emp't Sec'y Bd. 2.K, Code of Vt. Rules 24 005 001, http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/codeofvtrules/ [https://perma.cc/4YZV-QN32] [hereinafter Rules of the Board].
Although neither party provided record evidence about the contents of the initial "claim" phone call, the Department represented in its briefing before this Court that opening a claim requires the caller to answer "some 46 separate questions." In its brief, the Department has accepted claimant's word that she called on May 18, 2015, and it represents that it would have followed its standard procedure for opening a claim. We note that the claim process is unnecessarily complicated, with apparently no system in place to later confirm or deny claimant's representations or that it advised her of the consequences triggered by the phone call. Given the ultimate importance of the date on which claimant called the Department, and given the complexity of the claims-filing process, the Department must provide more substantial guidance for claimants about how to maximize their unemployment benefits, including by alerting claimants that by placing a call to the Unemployment Division, they may initiate a benefit year.
The statute provides that the precise dollar amount for determining the minimum quarterly wage requirement is based on the state minimum wage and "shall be adjusted by a percentage increase equal to the percentage increase, if any, in the State minimum wage effective during the prior calendar year." 21 V.S.A. § 1338(h). According to the Board, that number for 2015 was $2386.
Under monetary method one, claimant's base period would have been the four calendar quarters of 2014. Because she had no significant wages between the time of her injury in April 2013 and the end of 2014, she could not satisfy the second statutory requirement-forty percent of her maximum wages in the base period-under monetary method one. See 21 V.S.A. § 1301(17)(B). Under monetary method two, claimant's base period would have been the last four calendar quarters at the time of filing,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Margaret SKIDMORE v. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published