An employee who accepts an early retirement package may collect unemployment benefits under the “voluntary layoff option” proviso in the state’s Unemployment Compensation Law, the state Supreme Court has ruled, overruling a string of Pennsylvania cases along the way.
Justice Max Baer’s 24-page opinion in Diehl v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review turned on the definition of “layoff,” which he said is not free of ambiguity. Baer reasoned that an employee’s acceptance of an early retirement plan, which was offered to avoid layoffs related to downsizing, was equivalent to accepting a layoff.
