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Chief Operating Officer/failure of fiduciary responsibility

mhees10076mhees10076 12 Posts
in HR & Employment Law Vote Up0Vote Down
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-18-03 AT 07:19AM (CST)[/font][p]Hi Everyone,
You have all been very helpful in the past and looking for your opinion once again. I don't know if there are any employment law attorneys out there, but here is the situation. We have a Chief Operating Officer who has profoundly been inadequate in his fiduciary responsibilities from not paying payroll taxes to disclosing cofidential information to a company that we were in negotiations with and the problems are ongoing. Because his title carries the responsibility of fiduciary responsibility, is the lack of fiduciary responsibility enough to terminate him without giving him any written warnings? Your help is greatly appreciated!! Thanks again, Marlene

P.S. My other question is do you apply the same discipline procedures with officers of a company as you would a non-officer?
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  • 3 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • RockieRockie 2,136 Posts
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    From what you have stated, this is gross incompetence and negligence in his posiiton and he has put your company in a very precarious legal situation. I would say immediate termination is warranted. If you have an employment contract with this individual, there is probably a clause in it about gross negligence of duty or something to that effect. In any event, if you have a contract, you may want to talk with your legal counsel about the termination conditions.
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  • JEBtroisJEBtrois 14 Posts
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    Failure to fulfill the requirements of a job, particularly fiduciary requirements is enough in my book. Release of proprietary information by a senior executive to a competitor and/or interested party is enough in my book. Failure to abide by federal payroll guidelines is enough in my book as well. If you can document that all of this is true, Fire this person and fire them now.

    Do you apply the same rules to officers as you do to other employees...absolutely! In the case of an employee that failed to do their job in such an agregious way, would you counsel them and keep them on? If an employee blatantly disclosed confidential information during sensitive negotiations they would be gone instantly.

    My thoughts...of course I have been wrong before.

    JEB
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  • Donna BankerDonna Banker 17 Posts
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    Circular E states that the penalty for nonpayment of payroll taxes is imposed on the person or person (not the business) responsible for paying the taxes and who acted willfully in not doing so. Willfully means means volunatrily and intentionally. A responsible person acts willfully if the person knows the required actions are not taking place.

    This guy sounds like a winner. Did he KNOW he was supposed to pay the taxes?
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