In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court held in DWD v. LIRC that terminated employees are not eligible for unemployment compensation if they violate their employer’s absenteeism policy, even if the policy is stricter than the policy in statute.

In this case, terminated employee Valerie Beres violated the written attendance policy that she signed with her employer by missing a shift without notifying the employer. The employer’s single instance policy was stricter than the two occasions in a 120-day period policy laid out in the unemployment compensation absenteeism statute (Wis. Stat. § 108.04(5)(e)).

The unemployment compensation statutes state that employees terminated for “misconduct” – including absenteeism – are ineligible for benefits. Citing those statutes, the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) denied Beres benefits. Beres appealed to the Labor and Industry Review Commission.

The court’s ruling upheld DWD’s decision to deny Beres benefits. The court ruled that, according to the “unless clause” in Wis. Stat. § 108.04(5)(e), employers may adopt absenteeism policies stricter than the statute. If employees have violated their employer’s stricter policy, they are still ineligible for unemployment compensation.