LINCOLN - The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday, May 20 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.

"Competent evidence" to support the finding that Badawi had committed misconduct was not provided by the employer, according to the high court's 18-page decision.

“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.”

Director of the Nebraska Labor Department, John Albin, was listed as the defendant in the lawsuit because the department handles unemployment benefits.

Albin said the Labor Department was pleased with the high court's decision as it affirmed procedural matters the department favors; specifically that the burden of proof for misconduct lies with the employer in such cases of denied benefits.

“We really didn’t have a big stake in the determination of whether or not the individual was entitled to benefits,” Albin said.

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