Terminating the Employment Relationship

b. Leaving Work Due to Sexual Harassment An employee is considered to have left work with good cause if he or she left his/her employment due to sexual harassment, provided only that the employee took reasonable steps to maintain his or her employment relationship. 390 c. Leaving Work to Accompany a Spouse to a New Location An employee who resigns from employment to accompany his or her spouse to a place where it is impractical to commute is considered to have left employment with good cause. 391 d. Leaving Work Due to Domestic Violence Abuse An employee who resigns from employment in order to protect his or her children, or himself or herself from domestic violence abuse is considered to have left with good cause. 392 e. Leaving Work Due to Concerns for Health, Safety or Morals An employee who resigns from employment because of an undue risk of injury; health reasons; physical impairment; impairment of hearing, speech or vision; pregnancy; or unsanitary conditions constitutes resignation with good cause if the employee took reasonable steps to preserve the employment relationship. 393 The California Code of Regulations sets forth other miscellaneous reasons for leaving work that may or may not constitute good cause depending on the circumstances. Each factual circumstance must be judged on its own merits and is determined on a case by case basis. 394 3. D ISCHARGE F OR M ISCONDUCT An employee is not eligible for unemployment benefits if the employer discharged the employee for misconduct. 395 Beware that an employer’s definition of misconduct is almost always different than the definition of misconduct under the Unemployment Insurance Code. Under the Unemployment Insurance Code, misconduct exists if all of the following elements are met:

The employee owes a material duty to the employer;

There is a substantial breach of that duty;

The breach is a willful or wanton disregard of that duty; and

The breach disregards the employer’s interest and injures or tends to injure the employer’s interests. 396

Thus, the term “misconduct,” as used in the Unemployment Insurance Code, is limited to conduct that evinces a willful or wanton disregard of an employer’s interest such that the employee engaged in a deliberate violation or disregard of standards of behavior which the employer has a right to expect of his/her employee. Misconduct also includes careless or negligent behavior of such a degree or recurrence that the employee has an intentional or substantial disregard of the employer’s interests or of the employee’s duties and obligations to his employer. 397

Terminating the Employment Relationship ©2019 (s) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 126