http://www.fbtemployerlaw.com/ Frost Brown & Todd LLC RSS Feed en-US Copyright Frost Brown & Todd LLC webmaster@sablaw.com Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:14:46 GMT Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:14:46 GMT http://www.fbtemployerlaw.com/BlogEntry.aspx?_entry=7d105a64-9b28-424b-8f85-a09bf78c35cc&RSS=true http://www.fbtemployerlaw.com/BlogEntry.aspx?_entry=7d105a64-9b28-424b-8f85-a09bf78c35cc&RSS=true June 30, 2009
An employee who voluntarily leaves his employment is not normally entitled to unemployment insurance benefits. There is, however, an exception for employees who leave for “good cause attributable to the employment.” In Brownlee v. KUIC, 2007-SC-000126-DG (June 25, 2009), the Kentucky Supreme Court explained this standard to mean “the employee must establish that the conditions of the job are such that any reasonable person would believe he had no alternative but to quit.” The court essentially adopted the familiar “constructive discharge” standard from discrimination cases. Applying that standard to the facts in Brownlee, the Court reversed two lower courts and held that employees who, in lieu of facing an unknown employment situation, took a cash incentive to retire early were not entitled to unemployment insurance benefits. Although the Court sympathized with the tough choice facing the employees, it nevertheless found that they had a reasonable alternative to leaving their employment and therefore held they were not entitled to benefits.]]> Blog Entry http://www.fbtemployerlaw.com/BlogEntry.aspx?_entry=9a653c56-52c9-4787-8e74-ce037a6f3b68&RSS=true http://www.fbtemployerlaw.com/BlogEntry.aspx?_entry=9a653c56-52c9-4787-8e74-ce037a6f3b68&RSS=true June 23, 2009
Workers in Kentucky who are currently paid at a minimum wage of $6.55 per hour will see an increase in their paychecks after July 1. That is when the state’s minimum wage rate increases to $7.25 an hour. Although the federal minimum wage mandated increase doesn’t become effective until July 24, 2009, the Kentucky General Assembly voted to have the wage hike take effect earlier.]]> Blog Entry