Nebraska Supreme Court rules in favor of a meatpacking worker fired during the pandemic

Department of Labor, named as a defendant, is pleased with clarifications laid out in unemployment benefit case


The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday reversed a lower court’s opinion denying several weeks of unemployment benefits to a packinghouse worker who said he refused to take on additional duties of a colleague absent with COVID-19.

The ruling centered on whether Saied Badawi’s actions leading up to his termination from JBS Swift Beef amounted to misconduct, which could disqualify him from 14 weeks of unemployment payments.

In its 18-page decision, the high court said the employer did not provide “competent evidence” to support a lower court finding that Badawi had committed misconduct by refusing to perform both jobs.

“At best, this record shows only that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, fewer employees were able to work at JBS. … Badawi refused the order to perform both jobs because he thought he was not physically capable of doing so. And the record shows that both before and after Badawi’s discharge, the two jobs were performed by two individuals rather than one.”

Read more: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/05/20/nebraska-supreme-court-rules-in-favor-of-a-meatpacking-worker-fired-during-the-pandemic/