Opinion
June 16, 1961.
September 12, 1961.
Unemployment Compensation — Voluntary termination of employment — Reason meeting test of ordinary common sense and prudence — Dissatisfaction with wages — Unemployment Compensation Law.
1. In an unemployment compensation case, in which it appeared that claimant, last employed as a laborer and truck driver, at a weekly wage of $60 plus $10 expenses, quit voluntarily because of dissatisfaction with his wages and because he did not have a New Jersey driver's license, and that the record did not show a reasonable effort to obtain a license, it was Held that claimant had voluntarily terminated his employment without cause of a necessitous and compelling nature and was, therefore, disqualified from receiving benefits, under the provisions of § 402(b)(1) of the Unemployment Compensation Law.
2. An employe's reason for leaving his employment must meet the test of ordinary common sense and prudence.
Before ERVIN, WRIGHT, WOODSIDE, WATKINS, MONTGOMERY, and FLOOD, JJ. (RHODES, P.J., absent).
Appeal, No. 142, Oct. T., 1961, by claimant, from decision of Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, No. B-60932, in re claim of Frank Morris. Decision affirmed.
Frank Morris, appellant, in propria persona.
Sydney Reuben, Assistant Attorney General, with him Anne X. Alpern, Attorney General, for Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, appellee.
Argued June 16, 1961.
This is an unemployment compensation appeal in which the Bureau of Employment Security, the Referee and the Board of Review all concluded that the claimant had voluntarily terminated his employment without cause of a necessitous and compelling nature and, so, was disqualified from receiving benefits under the provisions of § 402(b)(1) of the Unemployment Compensation Law, 43 P. S. § 802(b)(1).
The claimant, Frank Morris, was last employed as a laborer and truck driver, at a rate of pay of $60 plus $10 expenses weekly by the Schwarz Horse Transportation Company, Oakhurst, New Jersey, on June 17, 1960. He was not discharged or laid off but quit voluntarily because of dissatisfaction with his wages and because he did not have a New Jersey driver's license.
He was certainly not available for work without a license and the record does not show a reasonable effort to obtain one. An employee's reason for leaving his employment must meet the test of ordinary common sense and prudence. Disario Unemployment Compensation Case, 193 Pa. Super. 517, 165 A.2d 111 (1960). However, the record indicates that the real reason for leaving work was dissatisfaction with his wages so that his leaving was without cause of a necessitous and compelling reason. McGuire Unemployment Compensation Case, 169 Pa. Super. 467, 82 A.2d 324 (1951); Ganzen Unemployment Compensation Case, 182 Pa. Super. 149, 126 A.2d 529 (1956); Wood Unemployment Compensation Case, 189 Pa. Super. 295, 150 A.2d 179 (1959).
Decision affirmed.