In re the Claim of Cieszkowska

Appeal from a decision of the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board, filed June 3, 2016, which denied claimant’s application to reopen and reconsider a prior decision.

In January 2016, the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board ruled that wages paid to claimant, a per diem substitute teacher, could not be used to establish a valid original claim for unemployment insurance benefits between two successive academic terms because claimant had received a reasonable assurance of continued employment pursuant to Labor Law § 590 (10). Fewer than 30 days after that decision was filed, claimant applied to the Board for it to reopen and reconsider the decision. The Board thereafter denied claimant’s application to reopen and reconsider the decision, and claimant now appeals.^[1]

“A professional employed by an educational institution is precluded from receiving unemployment insurance benefits for the period between two successive academic years when he or she has received a reasonable assurance of continued employment” (Matter of Ganster [Commissioner of Labor], 111 AD3d 1014 , 1014 [2013] [internal quotation marks and citations omitted]; see Labor Law § 590 [10]). “A reasonable assurance . . . has been interpreted as a representation by the employer that substantially the same economic terms and conditions will continue to apply to the extent that the claimant will receive at least 90% of the earnings received during the first academic period” (Matter of Murphy [Copake-Taconic Cent. School Dist.— Commissioner of Labor], 17 AD3d 762 , 763 [2005] [citations omitted]; accord Matter of Vazquez [Commissioner of Labor], 133 AD3d 1017 , 1018 [2015]). Claimant acknowledged that the employer contacted her by letter at the end of June 2015 and informed her that there would be a need for per diem substitute