If you’ve ever had employees, you must have come across a situation where you had to terminate someone’s employment. Most employers struggle with terminating employees. Often, employers are worried about the terminated employee coming after them with a made up reason for wrongful termination.
In this article, I’m going to share some of the most common issues I come across when counseling employers on how to terminate an employee. Businesses that are part of my subscription program do not terminate an employee without consulting with me first. Here, I’m going to share some tips that you can use to manage your employees and lessen the risk of being slapped by a wrongful termination lawsuit.
- Require each applicant to sign a statement acknowledging that the employment offer is at will and cannot be modified by future policy statements, manuals, or oral representations made by supervisory personnel.
- Eliminate from the manual and other policy statements language expressly, or by implication, indicating that employees will be terminated only for cause or pursuant to progressive discipline procedures.
- Phrase all disciplinary procedures and guidelines as non-mandatory.
- Expressly reserve the right to terminate employees with or without notice and with or without cause.
- Expressive use of the right to alter, modify, amend, or terminate any portion of the handbook without notice to the employees.
- Require each employee to confirm in writing that the handbook or manual is not an offer of continued employment and that the employer retains the right to terminate the employment relationship at any time without cause.
- Distribute the manual or handbook, or its amendments, at the time each employee is hired, promoted or granted a salary increase.
- Limit the distribution of disciplinary procedures to supervisory personnel.
- Make sure that your business is in compliance with training requirements related to preventing sexual harassment, disability discrimination, hostile work environment, and reasonable accommodations.
In addition to these precautions, the employer shall establish a system that ensures that employees are not discharged without a full and fair investigation. If you have any questions about training your employees and order creating compliance-related policies, please feel free to reach out to me. The team at Rupal Law and Associates is ready to provide you with the legal support and guidance every employer needs.
~Mandeep S. Rupal / Attorney at Law
