Operton v. Labor & Industry Review Commission

**What Happened:** A Walgreens employee was fired after making several cash-handling mistakes while processing approximately 80,000 transactions. When she applied for unemployment benefits, the Labor & Industry Review Commission (LIRC) denied her claim, arguing that her errors showed "substantial fault" that disqualified her from receiving benefits. **What the Court Decided:** The Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed LIRC's decision and ruled in favor of the employee. The court determined that occasional inadvertent mistakes spread across such a large volume of transactions did not rise to the level of "substantial fault" required under Wisconsin law to deny unemployment benefits. The employee was entitled to receive unemployment compensation. **Why This Matters for Workers:** This ruling provides important protection for workers who lose their jobs due to honest mistakes. It establishes that employers cannot automatically deny unemployment benefits simply because an employee made errors, especially when those mistakes were unintentional and infrequent relative to overall work performance. Workers can feel more secure knowing that occasional human errors won't necessarily disqualify them from receiving the unemployment benefits they've earned through their work contributions.