(1) If the Director of the Employment Department or any interested party files with the Employment Appeals Board a timely application for review, the board shall promptly affirm, modify or set aside the decision of the administrative law judge. The board shall promptly notify the claimant and any other interested party of its decision. If the board finds that additional evidence is required to reach a decision, it may remand the matter to the administrative law judge to conduct a hearing to obtain additional evidence in the matter. The board shall promptly notify the claimant and any other interested party of such action. The administrative law judge may either make a new decision based on the additional and original evidence or forward the additional evidence to the board for a decision. If the administrative law judge issues a new decision, it shall be subject to review in accordance with the provisions of ORS 657.270 (6).
(2) The board shall perform de novo review on the record. The board may address issues raised by evidence in the record, including but not limited to the nature of a separation, notwithstanding the scope of the issues raised by the parties, the arguments set forth in a party’s application for review or the parties’ written or oral arguments. The board may enter its own findings and conclusions or may adopt the findings and conclusions of the administrative law judge, or any part thereof. When there is evidence in the record both to make more probable and less probable the existence of any basic fact or inference, the board need not explain its decision to believe or rely on such evidence unless the administrative law judge has made an explicit credibility determination regarding the source of such facts or evidence. The board is not required to give any weight to implied credibility findings. The decision of the board shall become the final order unless a petition for judicial review is filed in accordance with ORS 657.282.