Employment Law and Regs (NC) You are a new employee in the HR department and you
ID: 465379 • Letter: E
Question
Employment Law and Regs (NC)
You are a new employee in the HR department and your human resource manager offers the following advice regarding terminations:
1) Tell them that they are going to be fired immediately, but that you will let them resign instead so that it will look better for future employment.
2) It’s important to be decisive. Once you decide that a termination must occur, don’t waste any time carrying it out.
3) It is better to not provide any specific reason for the termination, since you want to leave your options open if there is a legal challenge.
4) Don’t allow terminated employees to hold you up for severance pay.
5) Remind employees that their benefits cease along with their employment and that they should make alternative plans for things like health insurance.
6) It is very important to get terminated employees to sign waivers of legal claims against you. Give them a few days to think it over. You can offer to pay their final check immediately if they sign the waiver.
What, if any, legal problems do you see with this advice? What would be better advice?
Explanation / Answer
This is a kind of forced resignation i.e. the employer, in a way, is forcing resignation. If reason for termination is not given to the employee or the employee is terminated without being given a prior notice or information regarding the same, it will be considered unjust.
Secondly, no specific reason is being provided for termination. Usually the contract between an employer and employee mentions a notice period that either of the party (employer or the employee) has to give before terminating the contract. An employer can remove an employee by giving just cause and a notice. Employees cannot be terminated immediately and without any reason for termination.
Severance pay depends on the employment contract. Employees may be entitled to unemployment compensation in case they have been fired. Lastly, employees cannot be forced to sign waivers of legal claims against the employer.
All these would be held against the company in which you are working and the company will be held guilty of terminating its employee wrongfully. The court may ask the company to pay money damages and appropriate severance package.
A better advice would be to not fire the concerned employee immediately. Instead, the employee should be given a notice stating the reason why the company is not satisfied with its performance or what are the causes that is making the company to contemplate firing the employee. The employee should be given a chance to improve his/her performance (if the employee is being considered for poor performance). Lastly, employees should not be fired immediately and appropriate notice should be given as per the terms and conditions of the contract.
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