Final Pay for terminated employees

Lopez

We had reasonable suspicion that one of our employees was under the influence of drugs. The immediate Supervisor and Manager wrote their statements. The employee was asked to go take a random drug test- he refused and instead said he QUIT. This is cause for termination (refusing to take the drug test)- can we write all the paperwork and say that he was terminated and not resigning?
Also, he received his final pay- he was told by or HR manager he would receive his pro-rated vacation pay. She is new so she didn't know our company pays anniversary pay .. we don't pay any pro-rated pay for this. Now are we suppose to pay this to the terminated employee because it was promised by the HR manager??

Gillian

Let him resign, then you will have less worry about a challenge to your request for a drug test. The privacy regs in Ca. are pretty strict and you don't want a charge of violating privacy, and being fired in retaliation for the refusal as well. The post is not really clear regarding the pay. If he quit, you have 72 hours to pay him his pro-rated, unused vacation, just like you would have had with his regular pay, assuming you consider it a quit, of course. If you insist that it was a termination, then you should have paid him the vacation at the same time you did his pay, and if he files a wage claim you will owe him one days pay for each day that you are late in paying. GO FOR THE QUIT. Regarding the anniversary pay, there is no requirement for pro-rating it. I can't tell from the post whether or not the HR person really promised that this would be paid. If it was promised, you probably should but I don't know how he would collect if you didn't. A wage claim would be rejected because it is not wages or salary. Maybe he would go to small claims court where he would probably win. I would pay it if it was promised, in error makes no difference, and because it may create a bunch of hassle if you don't.