Weaver v. Minnesota Valley Laboratories, Inc., No. C6-90-2563

• Decision Date: 14 May 1991
• Docket Number: No. C6-90-2563
• Citation: 470 N.W.2d 131
• Parties: Timothy WEAVER, Relator, v. MINNESOTA VALLEY LABORATORIES, INC., Commissioner of Jobs and Training, Respondents.
• Court: Minnesota Court of Appeals

Page 131

470 N.W.2d 131

Timothy WEAVER, Relator, v. MINNESOTA VALLEY LABORATORIES, INC., Commissioner of Jobs and Training, Respondents.

No. C6-90-2563.

Court of Appeals of Minnesota.

May 14, 1991.

Syllabus by the Court

1. An employee is disqualified from receiving unemployment compensation benefits where he resigns due to sexual harassment by a management level supervisor without reporting that abuse to a 2. For unemployment compensation purposes, knowledge of harassment by managerial personnel is not imputed to the employer when the employer has a written policy regarding report of sexual abuse and identifies a company official to receive such reports.

company official designated to receive such reports.

Stacy A. Broman, Hottinger Law Offices, Mankato, for Timothy Weaver.

Thomas P. Donnelly, Jr., New Ulm, for Minnesota Valley Laboratories, Inc.

Hubert H. Humphrey, III, Atty. Gen., James Patrick Barone, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., St. Paul, for Com'r of Jobs and Training.

Considered and decided by AMUNDSON, P.J., and HUSPENI and RANDALL, JJ.

OPINION

HUSPENI, Judge.

Relator Timothy Weaver seeks review of a decision by the Commissioner of Jobs and Training denying his claim for unemployment compensation benefits. The Commissioner concluded that Weaver should have complained to higher level management before quitting his job as a result of sexual harassment by his supervisor. We affirm.

FACTS

Timothy Weaver began working as a full-time microbiologist for respondent Minnesota Valley Testing Laboratories, Inc. (MVTL) in November 1989. Weaver's supervisor was Kate O'Connor, the microbiology lab manager. Weaver and O'Connor shared an office until approximately March 1, 1990.

When Weaver was hired, he received a copy of MVTL's sexual harassment policy, which stated:

Any employee who believes that she, or he, has been subject to * * * harassment, is encouraged to report it to the EEO [Equal Employment Opportunity] Officer (Fred Day) for prompt investigation and action. Each employee involved will be given opportunity to tell their version of the facts, after which the EEO Officer will take appropriate actions depending on the situation.

Weaver resigned from MVTL on April 11, 1990, alleging he had been sexually harassed by O'Connor. Weaver filed a claim for unemployment compensation benefits with the Department of Jobs and Training (Department), but his claim was denied on the basis that he had voluntarily quit his job without good cause attributable to MVTL.

Weaver appealed to a Department referee, who conducted a hearing. During the course of the hearing, Weaver testified that O'Connor had discussed with him her drinking and sexual activities and fantasies. She also asked Weaver questions about sexual topics, and remarked on his sexual relationship with his wife. Weaver was offended by O'Connor's comments, and was very uncomfortable with the situation. According to Weaver, O'Connor's comments affected his work and made him feel "degraded and terrible * * * under duress." At the end of January, Weaver confronted O'Connor and stated that he did not appreciate her remarks. O'Connor shrugged off his complaints.

In early January 1990, Weaver and his wife attended MVTL's Christmas party. At that time, Weaver's wife spoke with MVTL's Chief Executive Officer and EEO Officer, Fred Day. Weaver's wife complained to Day that O'Connor was treating Weaver unfairly. Day did not follow up on the matter because the complaint was made by an employee's spouse.

On January 30, 1990, O'Connor submitted to Weaver a list of areas in which she expected him to improve. Weaver told Day that O'Connor was not treating him in a professional manner and that he could not understand why O'Connor was questioning his work. Day assessed the problem as a personality conflict between two professionals, and an inability by Weaver to accept O'Connor as a supervisor because she was a woman.

Day testified that he did not initiate an investigation of sexual harassment because Weaver made no such claim. It is Weaver's position, however, that he complained to Day about the sexual harassment.

Two of Weaver's co-workers testified that sex was discussed in the work place. One of the co-workers testified that everyone in the lab occasionally made sexual comments, including O'Connor.

Following the hearing, the referee found, in part:

[Weaver] initiated a conversation with the chief executive officer, [Day] and complained to the effect that the supervisor was not treating him in a professional manner and that he couldn't understand why his work activity was being questioned. [Day] assessed the situation as a personality conflict between professionals and also as an inability of the claimant to accept a female supervisor. The employer's personnel policy imposes on [Day] the duty to investigate and take appropriate action when a sexual harassment matter is called to his attention. He initiated no such action as a result of the * * * meeting [with Weaver] because no such matter was mentioned by the claimant.

However, despite its findings that Weaver did not mention sexual harassment to Day, the referee determined that Weaver voluntarily quit his job with good cause attributable to MVTL, due to sexual harassment by O'Connor. The referee reasoned that Weaver had made his objections known to O'Connor, and that her knowledge of the harassment must be imputed to MVTL.

MVTL appealed the referee's decision to a Commissioner's representative, who concurred with the referee that no report of sexual harassment had been made by Weaver to Day, but who reversed the referee's determination that knowledge of O'Connor must be imputed to MVTL. The Commissioner's representative concluded:

The claimant's failure to discuss the asserted sexual harassment by his immediate supervisor with Fred Day, or with anyone else in authority, precludes our finding that the employer knew or should have known of the existence of the harassment.

Weaver has obtained a writ of certiorari, seeking review of the Commissioner's representative's decision.

ISSUES

1. Does the record support the Commissioner's representative's finding that Weaver did not complain to Fred Day about the sexual harassment?

2. Must O'Connor's knowledge of the harassment be imputed to MVTL?

ANALYSIS

I.

An employee is disqualified from receiving unemployment compensation benefits if his separation from employment was voluntary and without "good cause attributable to the employer." Minn.Stat. Sec. 268.09, subd. 1(a) (Supp.1989). Sexual harassment constitutes good cause attributable to the employer if the employer "knows or should know of the existence of the harassment and fails to take timely and appropriate action." Id.

The parties do not dispute that O'Connor's communications to Weaver constituted sexual harassment, that Weaver confronted O'Connor and expressed his disapproval of her conduct, and that MVTL took no action to resolve the problem. The parties, however, dispute whether MVTL knew or should have known of the harassment.

On appeal, we must review the decision of the Commissioner's representative, rather than that of the referee. See Chellson v. State Div. of Employment & Sec., 214 Minn. 332, 335, 8 N.W.2d 42, 44 (1943). We employ the following standard of review:

This court will review the commissioner's fact findings in the light most favorable to the decision below and will not disturb them if there is evidence reasonably tending to sustain those findings. * * * The commissioner's conclusions of law, however, do not similarly bind us.

Ress v. Abbott Northwestern Hosp., Inc., 448 N.W.2d 519, 523 (Minn.1989) (citations omitted).

Weaver challenges the finding of both the referee and the Commissioner's...