Terminating an employee - California

Sheila2008

We are terminating an employee for performance issues. There were no warnings of terminating only verbal agreements that performances would improve, but they have not.  We have the final check, but not anything for him/her to sign (letter of termination).  I was told that we can not state in writing or verbal why we are terminating, only that it is a performance issue.  Does anyone have any verbiage or should I be concerned with not having anything for him/her to sign?  Or advice?  <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

TXHRGuy

I would be concerned about the cause of termination being secret.  Do you know why this person is being terminated?

I know we have at least a couple regulars who have strong California knowledge to address your direct questions.

dhall111

I don't see anywhere that CA requires anything in writing to the employee.  If I had to, I would stick strictly to "terminated for performance" and leave it at that.  Since you're a member here, search the hr.blr.com site for CA termination.

Khuseman_mpfcak_com

I recently terminated an employee and based the reason for "not meeting the company mission statement of Teamplayer"... now the employee is fighting the termination with the wage and labor department.  The final straw was an email that used derogatory names for minority employees.  However, we felt it was important to term this employee who has a history of not working well with coworkers for not meeting the needs of a teamplayer.  Each of our employees signs a hire letter that states we are an "at will termination" employer.  Now W&L are questioning the fact we did not place the employee on probation prior to the termination.  According to our company handbook we do not need to do this. I have documentation from the first time I spoke with her along with her coworkes in November.  In hindsight I would have placed her on probation, but according to our policy it was not necessary.  And the crux of the situationis that one of her coworkers that she was talking about in the derogatory email saw the email and brought it to our attention.   I am a bit frustrated by the insinuations by W&L that we fired strictly based on the emails.  We do have a clear policy on email usage which I did fax to W&L. 

Is this situation common?  Has anyone else had to deal with this type of issue with wage and labor before?  

IT HR

Have you disciplined this person in the past for behavior such as this?  If so, then use that to show that you have given this person a chance to correct the behavior and she has not done so.  Also, how have you handled situations like this in the past?  If you have had past incidents that you have handled the same way then use those to show you are being consistent with your discipline/terminations.

I have seen, at least in my state, that the DOL likes to see that you have given someone at least one chance to correct the behavior in less the situation was so severe that it warranted immediate termination.  That is probably why they told you that you should have put her on probation. 

My other thought is that this could have turned into a work place harassment situation. What does your work place harassment policy say?  You said that another employee saw the email and brought it to your attention. You did the right thing and looked into the situation and disciplined (in this case terminated) because of the severity of the situation (according to you company). 

Sheila2008

Yes, he was not meeting the performance level he should, in the position he was hired for.  It was in no way a secret and my boss really gave him a lot of rope.  My boss however wanted to tell him the different areas that he needed to greatly improve at the time of termination, but we were told to keep the conversation minimal therefore performance was in a nut shell.  We liked this employee a lot and wanted to tell him more than just performance issues. 

TXHRGuy

My own experience has been that immediate termination in the absence of prior offenses or written warning always gets push back from state agencies.  You can still prevail, but they always dig into thos more.

traciwhite6

I agree....documentation is a very important step that should not be missed. Most agencies want to see that the employee had been given every opportunity to correct the behavior before a company terminates. The "At will" environment does not hold up as much as HR would like it to. A company can do everything by the book but it does not stop a terminated employee from filing a case with DOL, EEOC or other agencies.