what are employer's rights?

[janie1963]

Anyone know of a website where employers can find legal advice on their rights? I recently fired an employee and she is now receiving unemployment...to make a long story short, she did everything (including leaving the door unlocked at night) she could to get herself fired. I know it will be a lot of hassle, but I am filing an appeal and will go before a judge if need be, however I'd like to know how to prepare myself for the hearing better.

Thanks in advance!

 

[teanut]

employer

janie - basically what you need to have in your appeal is documentation that she knew what she was and wasn't supposed to do.

Do you have an employee handbook? open and closing checklists ? job description ? etc...

and did you document her mistakes with an employee disciplinary form, explaning what would happen if she did not correct them ? and have her sign it ?

If you can show that she knew what her job was, and that you counseled her about her mistakes, told her how to correct them and that she was warned she would lose her job if she didn't, you may win.

In other words...you have to let employees know what the rules and responsibilites are (in writing not just verbally)...counsel them about their unacceptable behavior (1st time verbal warning, 2nd time writing warning, 3rd time suspension up to termination) and warn them of the consequences if it continues.

You can spell out in an Employee Handbook what offenses could warrant immediate dismisal or suspension, (i.e. showing up to work under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or drinking alcohol on the job)

Hope this helps...let me know if I can be of further assistance, I used to be in Human Resources, and actually attended quite a few hearings.

Good Luck!

 

[jpscoffee]

Janie,
Amy hit it on the head. I had an assistant manager who had performance issues. My operations manager, Tim, documented through three evaluations and four warnings (final warning was the termination). When we recieved a nice little notice that the employee was trying to get unemployment, Tim sent a one page letter outlining dates and documentation types for all performance problems. His unemployment was rejected.

The handbook that we have is very complete. Then we make sure to identify performance issues in our bi-annual evals. We train our assistant managers that it is their job to identify and deal with performance issues. Documentation is important and valuable (no $$ to employee who won't change).

If you didn't do these things and must therefore pay out unemployment, consider this a learning experience. Just make sure to learn from this and it shouldn't happen again.
Ciao

 

[janie1963]

I have a set of policies/guidelines, general work rules, etc that each employee must sign. I can only begin to give you a list of violations she committed: left door unlocked and cash encelope in the window, argued with me in front of customers, attempted to make me look foolish in customer's presence, lied to me, falsified her time sheet, and I strongly suspect she gave out free drinks (theft). The problem is that I took some well intentioned, yet bad advice and didn't fire her on the spot...we thought I should get more documentation, etc. The last week or less of her employment is when the customer complaints started coming in. Employment Security says what she did did NOT amount to "misconduct". I've read some cases against ES over misconduct and it'll be tough to prove that she had intent to do harm or knew her actions could cause harm. In other words she can play dumb and does so very very well.

I received a letter fron ES which made it sound like she was going to get benefits and then I received another notice (just like the first) that she had filed a claim and even stated that she began working for me on the 8th when it was the 16th.

I'm just really frustrated to find that I basically have no rights and can't fire someone without paying....and I'm trying to get this business established-the money has run out and the sales aren't where they need to be. I'd like to be able to focus on growth and not deal with her, but I will fight it on principle.