In Kocherhans v. Orem City, the Utah Court of Appeals upheld the decision of a trial court dismissing the claim of a former Orem City Treasury Division Manager for wrongful termination. The court ruled that the former employee’s failure to appeal the Employee Appeal Board’s decision to the Utah Court of Appeals precluded him from […]
In Swenson v. Department of Workforce Services, the Utah Court of Appeals “[took] issue with the [Workforce Appeals] Board’s reliance on evidence that was not presented to the ALJ or given to the parties” to reverse an ALJ’s decision in an appeal of an unemployment benefits determination. Although the Court ultimately affirmed the Workforce Appeals […]
The Utah Department of Workforce Services has apparently begun a campaign of alleging that unemployment applicants are committing fraud when applying for benefits while out of the United States. Relying on Utah Administrative Code Rule R994-403-112c(2)(i), the Department of Workforce Services has claimed that any travel outside of the United States makes a person ineligible […]
The Tenth Circuit ruled that an arbitrator drew from the essence of the labor contract when he reinstated an employee and imposed a last chance agreement on the employee despite the employee having violated a company rule and then lying about it. In Chevron Mining Inc. v. United Mine Workers of America Local 1307, the […]
In Sandoval v. Martinez-Barnish, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court’s decision to refuse to substitute the United States as the defendant in a case brought by a contract worker against the federal employee assigned to supervise her work. The contract worker brought a claim for assault, battery, and outrageous conduct against […]
On August 11, 2011, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a district court had properly dismissed an Age Discrimination in Employment Act and ERISA claim against an employer. In Tomlinson v. El Paso Corporation, the court stated that it would determine whether an ERISA plan was discriminatory on the basis of age by […]
Tol On July 25, 2011, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, the federal appellate court having jurisdiction over federal cases in Utah, decided an issue that had yet to be decided by that court—whether an employee claiming a violation of his or her right to association was required to show that the association involved an […]
In Lowery v. Workforce Appeals Board, a tattoo parlor, Happy Valley Tattoo, claiming to be a religious entity affiliated with UBU Ministries that “considered tattooing to be one of its core religious tenets,” asserted that it was exempt from Utah’s unemployment insurance statutes. Acknowledging that such an exemption exists, the Utah Court of Appeals held […]
On July 29, 2011, the Utah Court of Appeals upheld a Workforce Appeals Board determination that an employee who failed to follow his work schedule was not terminated for just cause and was, therefore eligible for unemployment. In Prosper Team, Inc. v. Department of Workforce Services, the Utah Court of Appeals stated that, although it […]
