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misunderstood, or incompletely understood, by all

parties. Here are some key points to remember:

An employee is not necessarily disqualified if he

or she was fired for cause. Only those employees who

are fired for (i) deliberate misconduct in willful disregard

of an employer’s interest; or (ii) due to the employee’s

knowing violation of a reasonable and uniformly

enforced rule or policy of the employer are disqualified.

Like most things in the law, the standards are

easier to recite than apply to a specific factual situation,

for example, what constitutes a “reasonable and

uniformly enforced” policy, or what is “willful

disregard” of the employer’s interest. You can be

reasonably confident that an employee terminated for

theft or workplace violence, or one terminated for

continued absences or tardiness in violation of a written

72| Rules of the Road