As a general matter of law, someone who quits a job is not eligible for unemployment benefits in Oregon. However, there is an important exception to this law. An employee who quits for “good cause” may still be eligible to receive unemployment benefits under certain circumstances.
This exception was recently demonstrated by an Employment Appeals Board Decision (2014-EAB-0549). The decision defines “good cause” as “as a reason of such gravity that a reasonable and prudent person of normal sensitivity, exercising ordinary common sense, would have no reasonable alternative but to leave work.”
This is an important exception in the law which should be discussed with an experienced Oregon employment lawyer. In this particular case, the Board sided with a security guard who quit his job as a probationary officer at a high school, under the threat of losing his security license.
The Board found that this threat constituted “good cause” for him to quit and receive unemployment benefits.