NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE

APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION

SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY

APPELLATE DIVISION

DOCKET NO. A-4053-07T24053-07T2

TRACEY D. PARKS,

Appellant,

v.

BOARD OF REVIEW, DEPARTMENT

OF LABOR and COOPER HEALTH

SYSTEM,

Respondents.

_____________________________________________________

Submitted January 13, 2009 - Decided

Before Judges Skillman, Graves and Grall.

On appeal from the Board of Review, Department of Labor, Docket No. 174,540.

Tracey D. Parks, appellant pro se.

Anne Milgram, Attorney General, attorney for respondent Board of Review (Lewis A. Scheindlin, Assistant Attorney General, of counsel; Brady Montalbano Connaughton, Deputy Attorney General, on the brief).

Respondent Cooper Health System has not filed a brief.

The opinion of the court was delivered by

SKILLMAN, P.J.A.D.

Appellant Tracey Parks appeals from a final decision of the Board of Review, which affirmed a determination of an Appeal Tribunal that she was disqualified under N.J.S.A. 43:21-5(b) from receiving unemployment compensation benefits for a period of six weeks because she was discharged for "misconduct" connected with her work. We reverse.

N.J.S.A. 43:21-5(b) provides in relevant part that "[a]n [applicant for unemployment compensation benefits] shall be disqualified for benefits . . . [f]or the week in which the [applicant] has been suspended or discharged for misconduct connected with the work, and for the five weeks which im-mediately follow that week."

Our decisions have long-recognized that "misconduct" requiring a temporary disqualification from receiving un-employment compensation benefits must be more than simply inadequate job performance that provides good cause for discharge. "Misconduct within the meaning of [N.J.S.A. 43:21-5(b)] . . . must be an act of wanton or willful disregard of the employer's interest, a deliberate violation of the employer's rules, a disregard of standards of behavior which the employer has the right to expect of his employee, or negligence in such degree or recurrence as to manifest culpability, wrongful intent, or evil design, or show an intentional and substantial disregard of the employer's interest or of the employee's duties and obligations to the employer." Beaunit Mills, Inc. v. Bd. of Review, 43 N.J. Super. 172, 183 (App. Div. 1956) (quoting 48 Am. Jur. Soc. Sec., Unemployment Comp.