Legal Question in Employment Law in California

"Good cause" exists for leaving work, when a substantial motivating factor in causing the claimant to leave work, at the time of leaving, whether or not work connected, is real, substantial, and compelling and would cause a reasonable person genuinely desirous of retaining employment to leave work under the same circumstances.

The "reasonable person" is physically the same as the claimant (i.e. a person with severe chronic depression).

There's a three-part test in determining whether an employee quit for "good cause."

(1) Is the reason for leaving "real, substantial, and compelling"?

(2) Would that reason cause a "reasonable person," genuinely desirous of working, to leave work under the same circumstances?

(3) Did the claimant fail to attempt to preserve the employment relationship, thereby negating any "good cause" he/she might have had in leaving?

This duty may be satisfied by reasonable steps, including, but not limited to, any of the following:

1. Seeking an adjustment of the problem by allowing the employer an opportunity to remedy the situation if the employer can reasonably do so.

2. Seeking a leave of absence or transfer to other employment with the same employer if likely to remedy the problem and if the claimant knew or should have known that a leave or a transfer probably would have been granted had one been requested.

Whether good cause existed for your son's resignation is very fact-specific; I honestly don't know how the EDD would rule, but these are the standards they use in ruling.