Employees Who Took An Early Retirement Cash Incentive Are Not Entitled To Unemployment Insurance Benefits.
An employee who voluntarily leaves his employment is not normally entitled to unemployment insurance benefits. There is, however, an exception for employees who leave for “good cause attributable to the employment.”
In Brownlee v. KUIC, 2007-SC-000126-DG (June 25, 2009), the Kentucky Supreme Court explained this standard to mean “the employee must establish that the conditions of the job are such that any reasonable person would believe he had no alternative but to quit.” The court essentially adopted the familiar “constructive discharge” standard from discrimination cases. Applying that standard to the facts in Brownlee, the Court reversed two lower courts and held that employees who, in lieu of facing an unknown employment situation, took a cash incentive to retire early were not entitled to unemployment insurance benefits.
Although the Court sympathized with the tough choice facing the employees, it nevertheless found that they had a reasonable alternative to leaving their employment and therefore held they were not entitled to benefits.
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Attorney Spotlight
Deborah S. Adams is a member of Frost Brown Todd LLC and practices in the labor and employment law practice group. She represents management in the areas of employment discrimination and wrongful discharge.