An individual is disqualified for unemployment compensation benefits if the director finds that he or she left his or her most recent work voluntarily without good cause or that he or she has been discharged for misconduct connected with his or her most recent work.

An individual is presumed to have been discharged for reasons other than misconduct in connection with his or her work and not to have voluntarily left his or her work without good cause unless his or her employer has given written notice to the contrary to the department as provided in Section 1327, setting forth facts sufficient to overcome the presumption. The presumption provided by this section is rebuttable.

An individual whose employment is terminated under the compulsory retirement provisions of a collective bargaining agreement to which the employer is a party, shall not be deemed to have left his or her work without good cause.

An individual may be deemed to have left his or her most recent work with good cause if he or she leaves employment to accompany his or her spouse or domestic partner to a place or to join him or her at a place from which it is impractical to commute to the employment. For purposes of this section “spouse” includes a person to whom marriage is imminent, and “domestic partner” includes a person to whom a domestic partnership, as described in Section 297 of the Family Code, is imminent.

An individual may be deemed to have left his or her most recent work with good cause if he or she leaves employment to protect his or her family, or himself or herself, from domestic violence abuse.

An individual shall be deemed to have left his or her most recent work with good cause if he or she elects to be laid off in place of an employee with less seniority pursuant to a provision in a collective bargaining agreement that provides that an employee with more seniority may elect to be laid off in place of an employee with less seniority when the employer has decided to lay off employees.

(Amended by Stats. 2010, Ch. 678, Sec. 3.5. (AB 2364) Effective January 1, 2011.)