Firing an employee in an at-will employment state
Gracie
51 Posts
We are based in VA, an at-will employment state. We intend to fire one of our employees who has been tardy for quite a while, but his supervisor had not documented any of his tardiness. Could we fire him for "a good reason, a bad reason or no reason at all"?
I've heard from his manager's supervisor that his manager had called this employee a "lazy mexican" some months ago. Are we in for some potential racial discrimination charge if we were to fire him under at-will employment relationship? Please give me your thoughts.
I've heard from his manager's supervisor that his manager had called this employee a "lazy mexican" some months ago. Are we in for some potential racial discrimination charge if we were to fire him under at-will employment relationship? Please give me your thoughts.
Comments
Best of luck,
Dutch2
Documentation and At-Will are two different issues. You don't need any doucmentation to fire the person. If he sues you for firing him (e.g. breach of contract), you simply cite at-will and walk away fine.
If he sues you for race/national origin discrimination, that's where you have the problem. It is harder to win a slam dunk without documentation as to his tardiness, but, you can still file affidavits to that effect. The Mexican comment is harmful in a lawsuit, but I generally think that it's a bad idea to keep a poor employee on simply out of fear of what the person might do.
Perhaps the best solution is to call the employee in and give him a final warning and document that (as in "if you are late one more time you are fired"). That's a legitimate non-discriminatory reason, it gives you documentation, and it takes the decision out of the hands of the manager with poor people skills (thus reducing the impact of his statement).
Hope this helps.
John
Just the old pork, honking again
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to terminate a management team up North.
I appreciate your point of view, but I'm always leery of hard and fast rules. In trying to stay on topic, in a situation like this where there is the potential for a discrimination suit, clearly the lower level manager with the bit mouth needs to be bypassed and HR should be involved even if it's as a witness to a higher level manager's issuing of a final warning. But, to simply say that HR should stay above the fray at all times is to invite trouble when others are not aware of the ramifications of what they might be doing.
Second issue: Your manager needs to be retrained about following policies regarding attendance/tardies, harassment (although I don't really think one comment of this nature constitutes harassment, insensitivity maybe)and documentation. Good luck.