Glionna v. Chizek

• Decision Date: 10 July 1979
• Docket Number: No. 42324,42324
• Citation: 204 Neb. 37,281 N.W.2d 220
• Parties: Maria GLIONNA, Appellee, v. Gerald E. CHIZEK, Commissioner of Labor, State of Nebraska, Appellant, Impleaded with Stuart's, Inc., Appellee.
• Court: Nebraska Supreme Court

Page 220

281 N.W.2d 220

204 Neb. 37

Maria GLIONNA, Appellee, v. Gerald E. CHIZEK, Commissioner of Labor, State of Nebraska, Appellant, Impleaded with Stuart's, Inc., Appellee.

No. 42324.

Supreme Court of Nebraska.

July 10, 1979.

Syllabus by the Court

1. Labor and Labor Relations: Statutes. An appeal from proceedings under section 48-601 et seq., R.R.S.1943, the Employment Security Law, must be considered by this court de novo.

2. Labor and Labor Relations: Words and Phrases: Statutes. If an employee accepts employment in good faith and through no fault or deficiency on his or her part the workload becomes an increasingly unreasonable burden so as to affect the health or sense of well-being of the employee, voluntary termination does have some justifiably reasonable connection with or relation to conditions of employment and may be deemed for "good cause" under section 48-628(a), R.S.Supp., 1976.

James R. Jones, Lincoln and John W. Wynkoop, Omaha, for appellant.

Warren J. Nash, Omaha, for appellee Glionna.

Heard before KRIVOSHA, C. J., BRODKEY, WHITE and HASTINGS, JJ., and MORAN, District Judge.

HASTINGS, Justice.

This is an appeal by Gerald F. Chizek, Commissioner of Labor, hereinafter called Chizek, from an order of the District Court for Douglas County which reversed the determination of the Appeal Tribunal of the Department of Labor which found that plaintiff had voluntarily left her employment with Stuart's, Inc., without good cause and therefore was not entitled to unemployment compensation benefits. The initial claim had been heard by a claims deputy of the Nebraska Department of Labor who found that plaintiff had left her employment because she was dissatisfied with her job and her reasons were not of the necessitous and compelling reasons indicated in section 48-628(a), R.S.Supp., 1976. Testimony was given by both plaintiff and Don Dandy, owner of Stuart's, Inc., before the Nebraska Appeal Tribunal and additional testimony by plaintiff in the District Court.

According to plaintiff she began working for Stuart's, Inc., on April 1, 1976, and worked until September 29, 1977, when by her own action she terminated her employment. She was hired to work from 10 a. m., until 5:30 p. m., 3 days a week, and from 10 a. m., to 6 p. m., 2 days a week. Her pay was $3.50 per hour straight time and then was raised to $4 in about 3 months. At first she was employed as a seamstress, working with one other lady who was more or less in charge. However, the lady in charge quit and other people were hired periodically for a few days at a time, but for the most part plaintiff ran the entire tailor shop by herself. During that period of time she did the fittings, marking, ripping, sewing, and pressing. She said the volume of work increased to the point where she started going to work at 9:30 a. m., skipping lunch and one coffee break, and working as many as 9, 10, and up to 11 hours a day. According to plaintiff, there was "more than one evening" she was ready to leave work for the day when Mr. Dandy asked her to finish the job and she would stay until 6 or 7 p. m. At one point she testified that almost every day Mr. Dandy asked her to work overtime, from 8 1/2 to 11 hours per day. Apparently Mr. Dandy never told plaintiff she would be fired if she did not work overtime, but she knew there was the work to be done, she needed the job, and she would stay late each day until she was finished. At another point in her testimony she said she felt there was a danger of losing her job if she left at the normal quitting time.

Finally, the next to the last day she worked, which was 2 days before she was to take a week's vacation, there was so much work to do she told Mr. Dandy she could not work 11 hours a day and she could not possibly get the work done before taking her vacation. He replied they would see tomorrow. The next day there was more work on the bench than when she had left. She told him it was more work than humanly possible to do, and Mr. Dandy started to scream, jump up and down, and call her names she had never heard before. She began to shake so much she ran a needle through her finger. Following that last day she claimed she was sick and upset for 2 days.

Mr. Dandy gave a somewhat different version of the events leading up to plaintiff's quitting. He did agree that she oftentimes worked overtime, but claimed she was manager of the tailor shop and could leave at 5:30 p. m., each day, but that she wanted to work longer hours. He did not deny there was that much work to do and that plaintiff did work hard and would get upset. However, he knew she was doing extra work after hours for Aksarben. He testified she was an excellent seamstress and he had tried to hire her back. He also said he sent work to other tailor shops, which plaintiff admitted, but she denied it made any...