Florida Statutes
Fla. Stat. § 443.031 (2025)
Rule of liberal construction.
✓ 2025 Florida Statutes — current through the 2025 Regular Session
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443.031 Rule of liberal construction.—This chapter shall be liberally construed to accomplish its purpose to promote employment security by increasing opportunities for reemployment and to provide, through the accumulation of reserves, for the payment of compensation to individuals with respect to their unemployment. The Legislature hereby declares its intention to provide for carrying out the purposes of this chapter in cooperation with the appropriate agencies of other states and of the Federal Government as part of a nationwide employment security program, and particularly to provide for meeting the requirements of Title III, the requirements of the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, and the Wagner-Peyser Act of June 6, 1933, entitled “An Act to provide for the establishment of a national employment system and for cooperation with the states in the promotion of such system, and for other purposes,” each as amended, in order to secure for this state and its citizens the grants and privileges available under such acts. All doubts as to the proper construction of any provision of this chapter shall be resolved in favor of conformity with such requirements.
History.—s. 231/2, ch. 18402, 1937; CGL 1940 Supp. 4151(488), 4151(507); s. 2, ch. 20685, 1941; s. 14, ch. 29771, 1955; ss. 1, 8, 9, ch. 80-95; s. 15, ch. 2003-36; s. 2, ch. 2011-235.
Note.—Former s. 443.20.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 49
cases, 1984–2012 · leading case: Mason v. Load King Mfg. Co., 758 So. 2d 649 (Fla. 2000).
Mason v. Load King Mfg. Co., 758 So. 2d 649 (Fla. 2000). “§ 443.031, Fla. Stat. (1997). A worker may be disqualified from benefits under chapter 443, inter alia, if he or she is fired for "misconduct": Disqualification for benefits.”
Benitez v. Girlfriday, Inc., 609 So. 2d 665 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992). “The issue before us is whether Benitez's isolated use of obscene language, directed to a supervisor outside the presence of other persons, constituted misconduct under the unemployment compensation statute so as to bar a claim for benefits.”
Gulf Cnty. Sch. Bd. v. Washington, 567 So. 2d 420 (Fla. 1990). “§ 443.031, Fla. Stat. (1987). The Unemployment Compensation Law disqualifies a person who is no longer employed from collecting benefits under only two circumstances.”
Hummer v. Unemployment Appeals Com'n, 573 So. 2d 135 (Fla. 5th DCA 1991). “In determining whether misconduct has occurred which would disqualify a claimant from receiving unemployment compensation benefits, the statute should be liberally construed in favor of the claimant.”
Grossman v. Jewish Cmty. Ctr., 704 So. 2d 714 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998). “§ 443.031, Fla. Stat. (1995). In this regard, an employee is disqualified from unemployment benefits only if she has voluntarily left her work without good cause attributable to her employer.”
Reese v. Reemployment Assistance Appeals Comm'n, 103 So. 3d 195 (Fla. 3d DCA 2012). “Here, the enactment of the Rule of Liberal Construction, section 443.031, Florida Statutes (2011), 3 sup *198 ports an expansive reading of section 443.”
Anderson v. Unemployment Appeals Com'n, 822 So. 2d 563 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002). “We and the Commission are bound by that finding. Accordingly, we reverse the order rendered by the Commission and remand for entry of an order reinstating the Referee's order.”
Hilldrup Transfer & Storage v. State, Dept. of Labor & Emp. Sec., 447 So. 2d 414 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984). “Were it not for their services, Hilldrup would not be in the interstate carrier business. The special deputy properly weighed this factor as pointing towards an employment relationship.”
Turnberry Isle Resort v. Fernandez, 666 So. 2d 254 (Fla. 3d DCA 1996). “Section 443.031, Florida Statutes (1993), requires that "[t]his chapter shall be liberally construed to accomplish its purpose .”
Borland v. Unemployment Appeals Comm'n, 910 So. 2d 320 (Fla. 2d DCA 2005). “onduct demonstrating willful or wanton disregard of an employer's interests and found to be a deliberate violation *322 or disregard of the standards of behavior which the employer has a right to expect of his or her employee; or (b) Carelessness or negligence to a degree or…”
Alderman v. Unemployment Appeals Comm'n, 664 So. 2d 1160 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995). “The legislative objective of the Unemployment Compensation Law is to "lighten the burden which now so often falls with crushing force upon the unemployed worker and his family." § 443.021, Fla. Stat. (1993).”
Underhill v. Publix Super Markets, Inc., 610 So. 2d 48 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992). “A refusal by Underhill to execute a document which states that her submission to a drug test is voluntary, when in fact the testing is compulsory, is not employment misconduct by even a broad reading of the statute.”
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