The following article first appeared on Pullman & Comley’s Labor and Employment Law blog. It is reposted here with permission.

As we turn the page to 2023 it’s as good a time as ever to review one of the most important concepts in unemployment compensation—wilful misconduct.

From an employer’s perspective understanding when the wilful misconduct standard is met is critical because it directly impacts unemployment compensation costs.

An employee terminated for engaging in wilful misconduct is not entitled to unemployment compensation, and the employer will not have such termination charged against its unemployment compensation account.

On the other hand, a termination for conduct that does not meet the wilful misconduct standard results in greater unemployment costs for the employer either through a higher experience rating or direct costs for reimbursable employers.

What Constitutes ‘Wilful Misconduct?’

Under Connecticut law the wilful misconduct standard can be met in one of two principal ways.

An employee can be found to have engaged in “deliberate misconduct in wilful disregard of the employer’s interest …,” or an employee can be found to have committed “a single knowing violation of a reasonable and uniformly enforced rule or policy of the employer, when reasonably applied, provided such violation is not a result of the employee’s incompetence …”

Under the first part of the definition, Connecticut regulations state that deliberate misconduct includes “any act or...

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