Decision on the Employability of an Unemployed Person

Facts

By order dated September 2, 2002, the Office for Economy and Labor (AWA) of the Canton of Zurich denied the claim of R., born in 1969, who was employed full-time from March 26, 2001 to March 31, 2002, for unemployment compensation from April 16, 2002 onwards, on the grounds that due to the lack of assured care for her twin children born in 1994, she was not able to pursue employment to the extent of 100% that was allegedly possible for her, and was therefore classified as not employable.

In partial upholding of the appeal filed against this, the Social Insurance Court of the Canton of Zurich lifted the order of the AWA dated September 2, 2002, to the extent that it denied the claim for unemployment compensation from September 16, 2002, and determined that from this date onwards, the insured person was employable; in all other respects, it dismissed the appeal.

R. filed an administrative court appeal with the request that, in partial annulment of the lower court's decision, she be classified as employable also for the period from April 16 to September 15, 2002. The AWA, for its part, filed an administrative court appeal with the request that the cantonal decision of February 25, 2003 be annulled to the extent that employability from September 16, 2002 was affirmed.

On August 26, 2003, a copy of an order issued by the AWA on August 18, 2003 was received by the Federal Insurance Court, which classified R. as not employable until November 17, 2002, but affirmed her employability for the period from November 18, 2002 to January 31, 2003 with regard to a workload of 50% of full-time employment.

Considerations

The Federal Supreme Court decided that the cantonal court had wrongly extended the administrative court appeal proceedings to the period after the issuance of the contested order of September 2, 2002. Such an extension of the judicial review period is only permissible if the factual situation that has arisen since the issuance of the order, leading to a new legal assessment of the matter from that point in time, has been sufficiently clarified and the procedural rights of the parties have been…