California Code of Regulations › Title 22 - Social Security › Division 1 - Employment Development Department › Subdivision 1 - Director of Employment Development › Division 1 - Unemployment and Disability Compensation › Part 1 - Unemployment Compensation › Chapter 5 - UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION BENEFITS › Article 1 - ELIGIBILITY AND DISQUALIFICATIONS › Section 1256-34 - Discharge for Misconduct -Dishonesty

Current through Register 2024 Notice Reg. No. 28, July 12, 2024
(a) Scope. This section relates to discharge
						  for misconduct in connection with the most recent work based upon an employee's
						  dishonesty. "Dishonesty" includes such acts and statements as lying, theft,
						  making false entries on records, and other actions showing a lack of
						  truthfulness and integrity. "Dishonesty" includes both criminal and noncriminal
						  dishonest acts and statements. Section
						  1256-30 of these regulations sets
						  forth general principles also applicable under this section.
(b) General. An employee who has engaged in
						  dishonest acts or statements connected with the most recent work and for that
						  reason is discharged has been discharged for misconduct even though other
						  employees engaged in similar past acts or conduct or the employee has
						  previously successfully engaged in substantial dishonesty without reprimand or
						  warning or the employer has no specific rule forbidding dishonesty. Dishonesty
						  does not exist if the employee's act or statements arise from a good-faith
						  misunderstanding between the employer and employee where a reasonable person
						  would not have interpreted the acts or statements as dishonest under the
						  circumstances.
An employee who willfully urges or aids another
							 person to engage in a dishonest act which injures or tends to injure the
							 employer's interests, or in a dishonest statement which is intended to and does
							 cause or threaten substantial economic damage to the employer or a substantial
							 threat to the health or safety of the employer, has engaged in dishonesty and
							 misconduct even though the dishonest act or statement is committed or made by
							 the other person. An employee who willfully fails to report to the employer the
							 dishonest acts or statements of a co-employee causing substantial harm to the
							 employer has engaged in dishonesty. No duty usually exists to report a
							 dishonest act or statement if the effect is minor and insubstantial. An example
							 is the pilfering of the employer's property of little value such as a pencil.
							 However, supervisory employees or guards charged with a duty to prevent any
							 acts of dishonesty must prevent even minor and insubstantial acts or report
							 such acts to the employer if they occur.
EXAMPLE 1. X observed a co-employee steal a stack of
							 paper money from the employer's cash till. X did not report the theft to the
							 employer. The employer discharged X for this failure.
X has engaged in dishonesty by failing to report a
							 theft of a co-employee causing substantial harm to the employer. The discharge
							 is for misconduct.
(c) Cash.
(1) Shortages. Cash shortages refers to an
						  employee's loss of the employer's money without intent to convert or the
						  conversion of the money to the employee's own use. Cash shortages arise from an
						  employee's misconduct only where the employee fails to follow a rule of the
						  employer for handling cash or the employee has shown negligence of such degree
						  or recurrence as to show an intentional and substantial disregard of the
						  employer's interests or of the employee's duties and obligation to the
						  employer. If negligence is involved, including a failure to follow a rule of
						  the employer for handling cash, prior warnings or reprimands are relevant to
						  the degree or recurrence of negligence. If an employee acts in good faith and
						  to the best of his or her ability in handling the employer's cash, a loss is
						  ordinarily attributed to inefficiency, inability, incapacity, or good-faith
						  errors in judgment or discretion, or some combination of these factors, and not
						  to misconduct. An employee's inexcusable failure to report known cash shortages
						  where the employee is responsible for the handling of the cash is
						  misconduct.
(2) Misappropriation.
						  Cash misappropriation refers to an employee's willful taking or withholding the
						  employer's money with the intent to convert or the conversion of the money to
						  the employee's own use. Cash misappropriation is misconduct regardless of
						  whether there have been any prior warnings or reprimand for similar prior
						  conduct or whether there is any employer rule against
						  theft.