Terminating employee (Need response ASAP)

Tracie

Please give me some guidance as they want to do this tomorrow afternoon. Employee who has been with us less than a year is going to be terminated tomorrow because he does not seem to be a good match with the company and what they need him to do. They have no personal issues with the employee rather that he just has not lived up to their expectations and the Company feels it is best to not let this continue. Anyhow they will be releasing him and I need to know what I should do as I have never severed a salary person before. The Company plans to give him a month's pay and pay out his vacation that he has on the book (32 hours). My question is are we obligated to pay out any vacation prorated that he would have received as of January 1, 2002-40 hours? Also what about COBRA obligations, etc. Is there anything else that I should be looking at? The state is Kansas. Any immediately help would be greatly appreciated. Also do we have to have his final check ready at the time of termination? Everything in one check? Thanks.

MKT

You should only be obligated to pay accrued vacation as of date of termination. If the January, 2002 vacation is not yet accrued, then, it is not due. If the employee has insurance through your company, s/he is eligible to continue the coverage through COBRA - I would have the COBRA information at the termination. Most states only require final pays to be paid on the next regularly scheduled payroll, therefore, you would not be required to have the final paycheck on the date of termination if this applies to your state. It is to the employee's tax benefit not to receive the entire remaining amount due in one check. We prepare two separate checks for regular hours due and vacation hours due when we pay terminated employees. However, when additional pay has been awarded (beyond time worked), we pay these payments on each succeeding payroll until paid in full. Hope this helps.

Gar

Regarding the months pay and prorated vacation, talk to your legal counsel about the employee signing a release stipulating he'll get the money if he promises not to sue.

WOCO Frank

Regarding the release, is the employee in a protected class? If he isn't, then I'm not sure what a release accomplishes. As far as that goes, if he is protected, then chances are fairly good the release would be nullified in court anyway.