( Reif )
( Oklahoma County - Leamon Freeman )
Federal employee sought unemployment benefits after retiring under an incentive program to downsize the federal workforce. The Board of Review found her to be ineligible for benefits because she left voluntarily to accept a severance bonus. Employee appeals.
AFFIRMED
This case concerns a federal employee's eligibility for unemployment compensation after retiring under a voluntary incentive program to downsize the federal workforce. The district court affirmed the Board of Review's determination that Employee was not eligible. The Board of Review found that Employee "resigned her employment in order to accept a severance bonus the employer offered for employees who chose to leave voluntarily." The Board distinguished this case from other cases where unemployment compensation had been awarded to employees who volunteered to leave under actual reduction in force incentive plans. The Board noted that in the "eligible" cases, the employees who accepted separation benefits believed that they were in jeopardy of losing their jobs, whereas "Claimant tin the instant case had no reason to believe she would be terminated if and/or when the employer was forced to have a reduction in force." The Board concluded that her seventeen years of seniority would have likely protected her from losing her job in the event the federal government did implement a mandatory reduction in force plan. There are no reported cases in Oklahoma on point. The Commission relies on cases from other states where employees were found eligible for unemployment compensation even though they voluntarily accepted separation benefits under a reduction in force plan. However, each case cited involved a "lack of work" mandatory reduction in force rather than a truly voluntary separation incentive, where continuing work was available. The instant case is more analogous to Department of the Navy v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 168 Pa. Comm. 356, 650 A.2d 1138 (1994). In the Dept. of the Navy case, the federal voluntary separation incentive program was strikingly similar to the program in the instant case. Also, in that case, continued employment was an equally viable option to accepting the separation incentive and retiring, just as it was for Employee herein. We agree with the characterization of the separation incentive in question as an "opportunity"; that is, it was a bona fide choice that could prove as beneficial as continuing in employment. It was in no sense a parachute, or a narrow escape, from loss of employment.
In any proceeding under