In the Matter of the Employment Insurance Act,
S.C. 1996, c. 23
and
In the Matter of a claim for unemployment benefits by
Ann Polegato
and
IN THE MATTER of an appeal by the Claimant from the decision of a Board of Referees given at Sydney, Nova Scotia on October 14, 2003
Appeal heard at Sydney, Nova Scotia on June 16, 2004
DECISION
R. C. STEVENSON, UMPIRE:
Ms. Polegato appeals from the decision of a Board of Referees dismissing her appeal from a ruling of the Commission that she was disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits because she had voluntarily left an employment without just cause.
Ms. Polegato was employed by a telemarketing firm from November 26, 2002 to May 7, 2003 when she quit that employment. She has held an appointment as a provincial returning officer since 1970 and in 2003 was returning officer for the electoral district of Cape Breton West. A general election was anticipated in 2003, the preceding provincial election having taken place on July 27, 1999. Although the election was not called until July 5, 2003 Ms Polegato left her telemarketing job in anticipation of the election and because the Chief Electoral Officer required her to attend at Halifax for some training.
Section 29 of the Employment Insurance Act says that just cause for voluntarily leaving an employment exists if a claimant has no reasonable alternative to leaving, having regard to all the circumstances, including any of several specific circumstances one of which is reasonable assurance of another employment in the immediate future.
The Board of Referees made the briefest of findings:
The Board finds that the claimant did in fact leave a full time position to take on a part-time one. Tanguay A-1458-84 points out that where claimant voluntarily leaves her employment, the burden is on the claimant to prove that there was no reasonable alternative to leaving when she did.
The Board finds that the claimant leaving when she did was not a reasonable alternative.
The bulk of a returning officer's work is done between the time the election writ is issued and when it is returned. A returning officer is paid a fee of $3900 plus 15 cents per name on the official list of electors for services during that period of time. The tariff of fees under the Elections Act provides for payment of a fee for any services provided between elections at the request of the Chief Electoral Officer. Sections 24 and 26 of that Act specify some of the services which may be so requested. There is no evidence that Ms. Polegato was requested to provide services between May 7 and July 5. She was, however, required to attend training sessions at Halifax and anyone familiar with election processes knows that much groundwork, such as identifying potential election officers and locating potential polling places, is in fact done before an election is actually called.
Those are circumstances that are relevant to Ms. Polegato's appeal and the Board of Referees erred in failing to consider them. Ms. Polegato's case is out of the ordinary but, having regard to all the circumstances and particularly those to which I have referred, the Board's finding that Ms. Polegato had no reasonable alternative to leaving her employment was not reasonable.
The appeal is allowed and the disqualification is set aside.
Ronald C. Stevenson
UMPIRE
FREDERICTON, NEW BRUNSWICK
July 30, 2004