An administrative law judge ruled last month that North Carolina Labor Department officials lacked just cause to fire longtime employee Beth Benson over her web browsing habits and a cross-training dispute, ordering her reinstated with back pay. But that victory didn't last: a state appeals court panel stepped in last Friday and temporarily blocked the reinstatement while the department's appeal plays out.
Benson, who spent 11 years with the Department of Labor, was dismissed in January after officials cited two reasons for just cause, according to the Raleigh News & Observer: personal browsing on a state-issued computer and a failure to cross-train two subordinates. Benson had admitted using her laptop to look at job postings, houses for sale and her personal financial accounts, but she denied that the use was excessive, disruptive or outside the agency's acceptable-use policy. Investigators were never able to put a firm number on how much time she spent on it — the browsing appeared to total at most three hours within a single day, the newspaper reported.
A Judge Finds the Department's Case Wanting
Administrative Law Judge Stacey Bice Bawtinhimer found that neither cited reason supported dismissal for just cause, and ordered that Benson be reinstated with full statutory remedies, including back pay running from Jan. 14, 2026 — the date of her dismissal notice — until she returns to work. The judge also ordered the dismissal notice stricken from Benson's personnel file and directed that her reinstatement include reassignment to a similar position at the same grade and salary.
The Labor Department had argued that Benson's browsing could have embarrassed the agency had taxpayers found out, but Bawtinhimer found that claim unsupported by evidence. The department also acknowledged it could not dismiss Benson for unsatisfactory job performance, since her record included only a single prior written warning — issued in November 2025 for insubordination — and officials failed to show any negative impact on her job performance, per the same account. Benson, the judge noted, had an otherwise exemplary work history, and other Labor Department employees had engaged in far more significant personal computer use without losing their jobs, with one exception involving an employee who viewed pornography.
Benson was placed on investigatory leave with pay in December 2025 before her eventual firing the following month. The State Office of Administrative Hearings reviewed both reasons the department cited for her dismissal and found both wanting, according to the News & Observer's reporting.
The Fight Moves to the Court of Appeals
The Labor Department, led by first-term Republican Commissioner Luke Farley since January 2025, did not accept the ruling quietly. The agency filed a notice of appeal with the Office of Administrative Hearings on Sept. 28 and then asked the North Carolina Court of Appeals to review and stay Bawtinhimer's decision, according to the Carolina Journal. A unanimous three-judge panel granted a temporary stay last Friday, pausing enforcement of the reinstatement order while the appeal proceeds.
Part of the department's argument, laid out in its emergency petition, is logistical: Benson now works as an HR manager at the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, part of Democratic Gov. Josh Stein's administration, and the agency contends that transferring her back to Labor could require creating an entirely new position since someone else now holds her former job. The Carolina Journal reported that the same administrative ruling upheld the conversion of Benson's position to an exempt managerial role even as it reversed the department's just-cause determination.
Labor Department officials have pushed back hard on the substance of the ruling as well. Spokesperson John Wesley Waugh said the department strongly disagrees with significant portions of the decision and argued that the ruling contains substantial legal and factual errors. Benson's attorney, Valerie Bateman, offered a shorter response, saying the decision speaks for itself.
What Could Come Next
Benson has also claimed that her termination involved unlawful discrimination, harassment or retaliation based on disability and political affiliation, and the ruling preserves her ability to file another grievance over those allegations within 15 days of the decision being issued. Under North Carolina law, career state employees covered by the Human Resources Act cannot be discharged, suspended or demoted for disciplinary reasons except for just cause, per North Carolina General Statutes § 126-35 — the same standard at the center of the dispute between Benson and the department that fired her.
