Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission

# What This Court Case Means for Workers **What Happened** An employee at Mequon Jewish Campus was fired for missing work too often. The employer had an absenteeism policy, and the employee was terminated for violating it. The worker then applied for unemployment benefits, but the Department of Workforce Development denied the claim, arguing the termination was for legitimate misconduct. **What the Court Decided** Wisconsin's Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the employee. The court determined that employers cannot create stricter absence policies than what state law allows. State law sets a baseline: workers can miss up to 2 days of work within a 120-day period without it counting as misconduct. Since the employer's policy was tougher than this legal standard, the termination was not valid grounds to deny unemployment benefits. **Why This Matters** This ruling protects workers from arbitrary firing based on overly strict absence rules. Employers must follow Wisconsin's legal attendance standards rather than enforce their own harsher policies. Workers who are fired under policies stricter than the law allows may still qualify for unemployment benefits.