Court rules firing merits jobless aid for woman

An Arkansas woman fired from her job last year because she missed work while spending the night in jail is entitled to unemployment benefits, the Arkansas Court of Appeals said Wednesday.

That’s because her employer did not have a clearly written policy that employees must call in their absences and because she had never missed work before, the court record showed.

The opinion by Court of Appeals Judge Bart Virden overturned previous decisions by the Appeal Tribunal of the Department of Workforce Services, as well as that agency’s Board of Review.

It’s unclear what the employee, Tayia Whitmer, was arrested for in November, because records of the arrest were not in online court records.

Virden’s opinion does not say, but it does note that Whitmer used her only phone call to dial her mother to arrange for her release and take care of her children.

Other court records indicate Whitmer has three children, all under 10. She had worked for the company, Systems Contracting, for a little over a year, according to the opinion.

After she failed to show up for work that day without prior notice, Systems Contracting fired her for misconduct.

Employees are ineligible for unemployment benefits if they are fired for misconduct under Arkansas Code Annotated 11-10-514. Examples include violating written attendance or behavioral policies or willful disregard for an employer’s interest.

A human-resources assistant for Systems Contracting told the court that the company’s policy was told to employees and that Whitmer had no other negative marks on her record.

The court’s opinion does not require the company to re-hire Whitmer, only to award her unemployment benefits.