Legal Question in Employment Law in California

You can fire her for whatever you want, or no reason at all. If you want to avoid unemployment, however, you have to fire her for "cause," and you will want to be able to prove it. Not adhering to her work schedule is "cause," but you will want to document it, and it will go better in any unemployment appeal if you can also document that she was warned. Being "unhappy" is not "cause" but if she is not doing the job or not meeting the terms of the job, including work hours, you give her fair warning, and document everything, you would be able to fire her for "cause" with the best chance of that holding up on in an EDD appeal.

The employer is entitled to set and change hours, duties, titles, compensation, benefits, leaves, vacations, holidays, policies, rules, etc. just not retroactively. Employees have the 'right' to pay and employee benefits per the CA wage and hour laws, and formal company policy as agreed, to be provided a 'safe' workplace to minimize risk of injury, and sometimes are entitled to certain medical/pregnancy leave rights. That's about it. In general, unless an employee is civil service, in a union, or has a written employment contract, they are an 'at will' employee that can be disciplined or fired any time for any reason, with or without �cause�, explanation or notice, other than for illegal discrimination, harassment or retaliation under the ADA disability, Civil Rights [age, race, sex, ethnic, religion, pregnancy, etc], Whistle-blower, or similar statutes. The employee's goal should be to keep the employer happy.

If you lay an employee off, or fire 'at will', or fire 'for cause', the employee is entitled to EDD. Most employees are fired 'for cause', meaning the employer is unhappy with their performance. Only if they quit or are fired for 'misconduct' would they be ineligible for benefits.