CUB 39752

IN THE MATTER of an appeal by Craddock Trucking to an
Umpire from a decision by the Board of Referees given at
Edmonton, Alberta, on October 30, 1996.

DECISION

This appeal was filed by the claimant's employer, Craddock Trucking Ltd. from a decision of a Board of Referees affirming a ruling of the Unemployment Insurance Commission approving unemployment benefits for the claimant on the ground that the circumstances provided just cause for leaving his employment.

The claimant's ground of appeal is that the Board based its decision on an erroneous finding of fact.

It would be convenient at the outset of this decision to quote the relevant parts of the Unemployment Insurance Act, section 28:

"(1) A claimant is disqualified from receiving benefits under this Part if he lost his employment by reason of his own misconduct or if he voluntarily left his employment without just cause."

(4) For the purposes of this section, "just cause" for voluntarily leaving an employment exists where, having regard to all the circumstances, including any of the following circumstances, the claimant had not reasonable alternative to leaving the employment:

(g) significant modification of terms and conditions respecting wages or salary;

Despite the ground of appeal the basic facts are not in dispute. The claimant was employed by the employer as a driver of one of the employer's trucks. He commenced his employment on February 2, 1996 and left on June 15, 1996.

Sometime during the course of that employment the employer entered into a hauling contract and to perform that contract it was necessary for drivers to be able to communicate with the employer. The employer selected CB radios as a means of communication and demanded as a term of employment that drivers supply their own radios. The claimant refused. The employer contends that it offered to keep claimant employed by letting him work in town loading and delivering loads or he could be placed on the spare board. The claimant considered the work in town too heavy for him to handle and he was not interested in the spare board. As I interpret the evidence there was no firm assurance that in either case claimant would remain steadily employed.

The demand by the employer requiring the claimant to acquire a CB radio to allow the employer to better perform its contract injects a new provision and change to the terms and conditions of employment without the claimant's consent and that alone provides the claimant just cause for leaving.

The offer to permit claimant to work in town or to be allowed to go on the spare board is clearly a significant change in work duties within the provision of section 28(4)(i).

The Board of Referees did not err in concluding that claimant left his employment with just cause.