Section 29(1)(b)
MISCONDUCT, Insubordination, Single incident
CITE AS: Garden City Osteopathic Hospital v Marsh, Wayne Circuit Court No. 91-125850-AE (February 27, 1992).
Appeal pending: No
Claimant: Diane Marsh
Employer: Garden City Osteopathic Hospital
Docket No. B89-12647-114878
CIRCUIT COURT HOLDING: The claimant's refusal to work a midnight shift she had previously worked and her refusal to supply medical documentation to justify that refusal was disqualifying misconduct.
FACTS: The claimant worked for the employer as an assistant in the laboratory which operated 24 hours a day. For a period of time employees, including claimant, were scheduled to rotate through a midnight shift on weekends. An employee was subsequently hired to work the midnight shift. A year later the midnight shift employee needed to be absent for a medical procedure and the employer again scheduled the employees, including claimant, for a rotation through the midnight shift on the weekends. The claimant refused to work the midnight shift. She first indicated she was busy and later refused because it allegedly made her ill. She was told to bring in medical verification that working the midnight shift made her ill so it could be reviewed by the hospital. The claimant refused to work the midnight shift or bring in the medical verification and was fired.
DECISION: The claimant is disqualified for misconduct.
RATIONALE: The claimant's position description and the employer's handbook made it clear the employer reserved the right to schedule the claimant as needed. The claimant previously worked the midnight shift. The reason the employer needed to rotate the claimant to the midnight shift was because of the medical problems and resulting three month absence of the regular midnight shift employee. The claimant's refusal to work as requested was disqualifying misconduct. An employer is not obliged to accept an employee's protestations at face value but is entitled "to ask for some modicum of evidence of the claimant's asserted disability..." Insubordinate behavior need not be repeated to be disqualifying misconduct.
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