Missed shifts cost worker unemployment compensation

The Missouri Court of Appeals Western District ruled Nov. 17 that a woman who was fired after several unexcused absences is not owed unemployment compensation, even though she argues that her missed days weren’t her fault.

Mary Reliford was terminated as a part-time fitting room associate at a Missouri Walmart after missing five days of work in a month —more than the store’s attendance policy allowed during a rolling six-month period.

The state’s Division of Employment Security denied unemployment for Reliford, although she claimed that several of her absences were due to illness, car trouble and severe weather. Reliford argued that Walmart had failed to show that she willfully violated the attendance policy.

The Western District, however, said the employer no longer is required to make such a showing. The Missouri Legislature tightened the standards of the unemployment compensation law in 2014, including by eliminating a requirement that rule violations had to be deliberate.

As a result, the court said, “it is enough that Reliford’s five undisputed absences in March 2019 exceeded the number allowed by Walmart’s attendance policy, and that she was aware of that policy.”

The case is Reliford v. Division of Employment Security, WD83154.