In re the Claim of Berry

Appeals from two decisions of the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board, filed May 19, 1998, which ruled that claimants were entitled to receive unemployment insurance benefits.

Claimants, both licensed practical nurses, were discharged by the employer, a hospital, for verbally abusing three elderly female patients. It was alleged that claimants yelled at the patients, woke them up to take them to the bathroom and then “herded” them like cattle. Claimants’ applications for unemployment insurance benefits were denied and, at the ensuing hearing, the employer produced witnesses who either were not…