Earl H. Akins v. United States Railroad Retirement Board
Opinion
Opinion
Canby, J.
Earl H. Akins seeks review of a decision of the United States Railroad Retirement Board denying him unemployment benefits under the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act, 45 U.S.C. §§ 351-67 (1976) (Act). Following his retirement from the Army, Akins began working for the Burlington Northern Railroad. Two years later, his employer reduced his hours and ultimately furloughed him. Akins then applied for benefits under the Act. The Board held that Akins’s military retirement pay was a form of “social-insurance payment” within the meaning of section 4(a-l)(ii) of the Act, 45 U.S.C. § 354 (a-l)(ii). That section ex- eludes as a day of unemployment any day in which the claimant:
Id. (emphasis added). Provisos to section 4(a-l)(ii) then permit partial payment of benefits under the Act if social-insurance payments otherwise received do not exceed the level of benefits due under the Act. The Board denied Akins any benefits because his military retirement pay exceeded the level of railroad unemployment benefits payable under the Act.
Akins petitioned this court for review of the Board’s decision, pursuant to 45 U.S.C. § 355 (f). We affirm the decision of the Board.