Sections 29(1)(d), 29(6)
REFUSAL OF WORK, Offer of former job, Personal reason, Recall after resignation, Successive disqualification, Suitable work,
CITE AS: Dueweke v Morang Drive Greenhouses 411 Mich 670 (1981)
Appeal pending: No
Claimant: Eric R. Dueweke
Employer: Morang Drive Greenhouses
Docket No: B75 17239 51074
SUPREME COURT HOLDING: The Board must pass on the suitability of the former work offered, and also (and separately) weigh the reasonableness of a claimant's refusal of it.
DECISION: Reversed and remanded to the Michigan Employment Security Board of Review for reconsideration.
FACTS: The claimant was disqualified in May, 1975 for voluntarily leaving his work as a retail supervisor. He was also disqualified again in October, 1975 for refusing, for personal reasons, to return to his former position.
RATIONALE: The Supreme Court declined to hold that former work can never be suitable since that work would probably meet the statutory criteria for suitable work. "However, the reasons for refusing to return to the work, including the fact that claimant previously quit the job offered, go to the question of good cause for refusing the offer." The Court cited Sec. 29(6) factors on suitability before the 1980 amendment: "[T]he Commission shall consider the degrees of risk involved to his health, safety, and morals, his physical fitness and prior training, his experience and prior earnings, his length of unemployment and prospects for securing local work in his customary occupation, and the distance of the available work from his residence." MCL 421.29(6); MSA 17.531(6).
Evidence should be considered regarding allegations by Claimant that overtime payment procedures violate the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 USC 207(a)(1), and the Michigan Minimum Wage Law of 1964, as amended, MCL 408.384; MSA 17.255(4a). The Court found implicit in the statute that an offer of work involving illegal working conditions would render the work unsuitable. Personal reasons may constitute good cause under 29(1)(e) of the MESA.
11/90
10, 15:D