company policy and regs HELP

MAF

If a reg or policy is in the company manual do ER have to follow it the same as an ee does? For instance if a reg. quotes that ee has to follow all federal and state laws does the same go for ER? Problem is the ee contract states that all federal, state, company policy and regs have to be followed and ER used one of them to terminate ee. EE is now using same policy manual back at ER for not following own regs. which lead to ee being termination. How much trouble are we in for not following our own policy and regs? Help!! x:-/

Gillian

I am assuming that ER is Employee Relations, not Emergency Room or something else. The problem you have could range from a medium one to a large one depending on what the regulation was and how much noise the terminated employee makes. There really isn't any room for us not following our own regulations and, of course, federal and state ones as well. ER may have lost credibility with other employees who know of the incident and that hurts our ability to do our job. If there is some sort of hearing or lawsuit there will be embarassment at the least, and the basis for overturning the action at the other extreme.

Marie

ER could be employer. We all know that the employer should follow all federal and state regs; however, we also know that sometimes business decisions cause them to bend the rules. It comes down to how much risk they are willing to assume.

MAF

Sorry about ER, I meant employer, new to this. Problem is employer doesn't have a human resource person despite over 4000 ee. Personnel department wings it, they handle hiring and firing only. Now that ee has been terminated for absences ee is using company regs back at us. Company failed to follow own regs which resulted in ee absences due to health complications from company not following company policies and regs and state law. Lawsuit is in the works.

NaeNae55

MAF: From your previous posts, I assumed you were the EE. Now I am not so sure. In either case, the seriousness of the company regs not being followed depends upon the regs themselves. If they are also federal or state regs, the company has made a serious blunder and must address it immediately. If they are just company "policy", the situation is a little less serious but needs to be addressed nevertheless. It sounds like this organization is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Of course, we don't have both sides, but a company who has policies and procedures and doesn't follow them runs the risk of looking dishonest, unreliable, and incompetent in court. It must be frustrating for you, but for now just do as your lawyer suggests and try to hang on. Remember, some lawsuits take years and years to get settled.

Good luck!

Hatchetman

If the laws and regulations affected the basis for termination, and the employer violated them, then in a lawsuit, a court could find a wrongful termination and award back pay and reinstate the employee plus whatever.

If the employee reported the employer's violations of law and regulation to an appropriate agency, and then the employer fired the employee, the employee could claim "retaliation on a whistleblower" if your state has such legislation (assumng no federal funds are involved).

If the employer violated its own policies in terminating the employee, it is possible for a court to conclude that the employer acted inappropriately since it could consider the policies to be a form of "agreement" between the employee and the employer controlling the basis, timing and/or procedure for separation.

Mike

Sounds like the employee was terminated for absenteeism alegedly related to medical situation. If this is the case, the company may have violated the Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The size of the company certainly requires the company to provide qualified leaves under the act; the eligibility of the employee depends upon how long the employee was there. The other federal law that may come into play in this case is the ADA, depending upon the medical condition the employee has. If the condition qualifies as a disability under the act, the a leave of absence is a form of accomodation that could be given to employees. I think both of these scenarios could cause your company some problems. Also, given your statement about the lack of HR focus in the 4000 employee company, I wouldn't be surprised if other employees have been terminated for similar circumstance, i.e., not providing leave under FMLA as required, or possibly not providing ADA accomodations, etc.

If the concern is simply related to company policy, you should concern yourself with potential lack of consistency. If the employee in question is a member of a protected class, you need to be concerned about disparate treatment. For example, if other employees have been given breaks under the attendance policy and they are not in a protected class, but those in protected classes get no breaks, then there are potential problems.

You company needs to get a grip on this issue by getting a better focus on all HR matters above and beyond hiring people. I can only imagine what the turnover rate must be with 4000 employees.

System

Management needs to talk to a lawyer about this. You can find one here:
[url]http://www.hrhero.com/findanattorney.shtml[/url]

James Sokolowski
Senior Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers