change in conditions of employment case law

Company relocated causing employee of 17+ years to resign. Changes in the conditions of employment were pervasive and untenable for the following reasons: Distance to and from employer location increased from 12 miles to 42 miles. Previous travel was on suburban and backcountry roads. The new location requires travel on a major congested four-lane highway used by commuters and where multiple accidents occur daily. The time required to arrive at the new location without consideration for traffic conditions is 25 minutes one way compared to previous one way of 6 minutes. Employee lives in Mehlville Mo and her driving experience has not prepared her to be able to safely drive with the conditions required to safely maneuver the demands of a major commuter highway. This issue presents another change in the conditions of employment is so significant that it directly
changes the conditions of employment and cannot be presented as a personal preference but as a legitimate work requirement. Had this change in conditions existed 17 years ago, the claimant would not have applied for a position with this employer. The third condition of employment that has changed is the security of a parking
a facility, a critical change in the conditions of employment. Before the company relocated it provided employee parking adjacent to the building where the entrance to the building was feet away and the parking lot was well lighted. This is a critical factor for the claimant because her job required overtime hours during the last week of each month. These extended hours typically added 4-5 hours to the workday and ended well into the evening. The company does not provide employee parking at the new facility. The nearest public parking is located in an undesirable area two city blocks from the office building. The claimant's security would be at risk during the weeks when late hours that are a part of the job. Two city blocks walked late at night alone in an undesirable area where recent riots were staged places the claimant's security in jeopardy. A request was made of the employer to provide a shuttle bus for employees but that request was denied using indirect communications to employees (rumor).There is another reason that the new parking would present problems. The claimant suffers from a medical condition of a personal nature where the claimant must have accessible facilities immediately available to combat the symptoms of the medical conditions. The claimant could not experience an extended driving time without serious distraction, discomfort and worse.

MEL there is a separate but related question left. Claimant's supervisor told her several months ago that the would be a merger of departments involving the claimant's job and the position would be upgraded to require a college degree and more sophisticated medical knowledge. This added to the claimant's discomfort in delaying a job search for a new position in the area formerly occupied by employer.