California employees who voluntarily leave their job with “good cause” as defined by the applicable regulation are entitled to unemployment benefits. “Good cause” includes leaving for compelling reasons, whether or not work-related, that “would cause a reasonable person genuinely desirous of retaining employment to leave work under the same circumstances.” Whether the employee had good cause to leave generally is decided on the facts at the time the employee left work.
The employee has a duty to preserve the employment relationship before voluntarily leaving, for example by giving their employer a chance to remedy the problem or by seeking a leave of absence.
In Johar v. California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, the California Court of Appeal recently held that an employee who left work to care for a severely ill relative with the employer’s blessing could not be deemed to have left work voluntarily without good cause where the employee had not positively repudiated the employment relationship while she was gone.
Background
In April 2019, Reena Johar joined Success Water Systems (SWS) as a sales representative. SWS sells water filtration equipment to residential customers.
With the support of her supervisor Mari Lynn Johnson, Johar took leave to go to Chicago to care for her terminally ill grandmother on October 23, 2019. While Johar was in Chicago, she received inquiries from Johnson about pending SWS matters and about her expected return date. Johar replied that...
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