For employer to win an unemployment case when the employee is discharged, the employer has to prove that the employee engaged in misconduct, as defined In the Michigan Employment Security Act. Misconduct (I will refer to as statutory misconduct ) is generally defined as a willful wanton disregard of the employer's interest, gross negligence, or intentional disregard of the employer's interest. This is a heavy burden to meet, and as a consequence, employees usually win statutory misconduct cases. Statutory misconduct cases involving attendance violations have a burden of proof standard more favorable to the employer. I will cover this in a separate article.
Often times these statutory misconduct cases aren't winnable because the employee did not engage in statutory misconduct; the employee's actions amounted to: 1) mere negligence, 2) bad work performance, 3) incompetence, 4) isolated incident, or 5) bad judgment. However, employers lose winnable cases for many reasons. The major reasons are:
- The employer lacks well-defined, unambiguous policies and procedures. Any weaknesses in the policies and procedures that pertain to the employee’s actions would generally be held against employer. And if it can't be proved that the employee received the policies and procedures, then the employer can't show that the employee violated policies he should been aware of.
- The employer lacks a well-defined disciplinary process.
- The employer can't prove its case because it does not provide the right evidence.