Tag Archives: Termination

10 Facts Texas Employers Should Know About Unemployment

Compensation, Forms and Policies, Litigation, Personnel Policies, Termination, , ,

Do I have to pay unemployment on my employee who just quit/resigned/got fired/was laid off?

During most of my thirty years as an employment lawyer, I have been asked that question at least once a week. Here are ten basic facts that every employer in Texas needs to understand about our state’s unemployment system: Continue reading 10 Facts Texas Employers Should Know About Unemployment →

Why Drug Test Your Current Employees?

Attendence, Drug Testing, Personnel Policies, Termination, , , , ,

As an employer, you should be committed to a drug-free and alcohol-free work environment that protects both your employees, your customers and the general public.

Drug testing your employees is an important component of that safety commitment. However, while many employers test before hiring an applicant, nearly two-thirds of employers never conduct a drug or alcohol test on current employees, according to a Society for Human Resources study in 2011.

When employers do test current employees for drugs, employees test positive about 4.2% of the time, according to the latest numbers from the annual Quest Diagnostics Drug Testing Index. That number is creeping up and is at its highest level since 2004.

Even if you are a small employer with only 25 employees, that still means that one of your current employees could test positive for drugs right now. What if that one person is the delivery driver, the heavy machinery operator, the EMT, the security guard or any other safety sensitive employee working for you? Are you willing to take a chance with the safety of your other employees and your customers?

That only 4.2% of employees test positive for drugs or alcohol is actually a little low considering how many people are actually addicted to those substances. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2016 estimated that 8% of all Texans have a substance abuse disorder, with three-quarters of those Texans addicted to alcohol. The rest are hooked on marijuana, meth, heroin, cocaine and prescription opioids, in that order.

As a Texas employer, you don’t have to allow employees to be impaired at work. Continue reading Why Drug Test Your Current Employees? →

Simple Firing Form Keeps Employer’s Story Straight

Documentation, Forms and Policies, Termination, ,

An employer should always carefully document the reasons for firing an employee. But your termination documentation doesn’t have to be complicated.

I’ve attached a one-page form that you as an employer can quickly fill out and place in the employee’s file whenever you have to terminate the employment of one of your workers. But just because the form is simple doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t put some thought into the process.

Even though Texas is an “at will” employment state, it is wise to have good reasons for firing an employee. You need to stick to those reasons exactly when you complete the unemployment form from the Texas Workforce Commission, if you get a discrimination complaint from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and if you hear from the Department of Labor on a retaliation case.

Nothing looks more suspicious to a government investigator or to a jury than an employer’s termination story that changes over time. The all-important consistency of your answers begins with this document filled out on the day that the employee is terminated.

Clients are always asking me what they can do to prevent getting sued by an employee who was fired. Having good, nondiscriminatory reasons for the termination and documenting those reasons carefully are the first steps in preventing a lawsuit, or at least winning one.

Click here to download this simple firing form:

Termination Documentation Form 

White House Fails Basic “Firing 101”

Discrimination, Documentation, Litigation, Termination, , , , ,

Note: This is not a political post. President Donald Trump had the right and the authority to fire Acting Attorney General Sally Q. Yates last night.

From an employment lawyer’s perspective, the White House’s written statement about Sally Yates’ firing is a textbook example of how I advise my employer clients not to behave. https://www.whitehouse.gov/…/statement-appointment-dana-boe…

“The acting Attorney General, Sally Yates, has betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States. . . . Ms. Yates is an Obama Administration appointee who is weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration.”

We employment lawyers encourage our business clients to leave a fired employee with his/her dignity. I would never suggest an employer use loaded words like “betrayed” and “weak” or to impugn a long-term, high-ranking employee’s integrity during a job termination meeting. It is ill-advised in most industries to burn bridges like this or to set your business up for a lawsuit by a scorned ex-employee.

Sometimes terminating an employee’s job is necessary. For advice on how to fire in a more beneficial way, read my blog post on firing without fear.

Employers Need Solid Reasons for Firing

Attendence, Discrimination, Documentation, Litigation, Termination, , , , ,

Discrimination cases filed by former employees against their companies are usually won or lost on one concept—pretext—meaning that the reason given by the employer for the firing appears to the jury as a cover-up or excuse for the real reason, which the plaintiff will strongly suggest is discrimination. If the employer’s reason for firing the employee doesn’t perfectly line up with the facts developed in discovery and at trial, the business has a good chance of losing the case to the disgruntled employee.

Let me give you an example. If you fired Mary for being tardy on five specific occasions, but your security camera tapes, your time clock records, her emails and the testimony of other employees show she was not late on all of the dates that you specified, Mary’s discrimination case just got a big boost because your reasons look like pretext for terminating Mary. Then the door is wide open to say that her termination from employment occurred because she is black, a woman, disabled or born in another country.

When presented with this contrary hard evidence about Mary’s tardiness, it is not going to convince the jury when you say, “Oops, I got the dates of her tardies wrong” even if that is what actually happened. There is little a defense attorney can do to help you with the jury at that point because your reasons for the termination just look like an excuse for something more sinister.

Juries are pretty savvy in sifting through an employer’s reasons. As the employer, you must assure that the reasons you fire an employee are specific, provable, clearly-stated, well-documented and stay consistent from the time you first discipline the employee to the time of trial. Any variation in your reasons will come off looking like pretext.

Here are some other things that employers do that usually will be perceived as pretext in front of a jury: Continue reading Employers Need Solid Reasons for Firing →

Firing without Fear

Termination, , , , ,

Many Texas business owners and managers that I know are extremely authoritative and competent until it comes to firing an employee. Then the most confident bosses become fearful. Getting sued by an employee scares them and rightfully so. But times are tough economically and you may have to terminate some employees just to keep your business afloat. So how do you fire without fear of the legal fallout?

A “good” termination doesn’t happen overnight. I have often advised employers that even though quick, decisive action is needed, the employer may need as long as six months to fire someone if the employer hasn’t been diligent about policy-making, documentation and training before then. So before you can fire without fear, here are some preliminary steps:

  1. Make sure you have a great employee policy manual that is up to date and makes clear your expectations of all employees. Policies that clearly prohibit illegal harassment, discrimination, drugs, Internet pornography and violence, as well as strict procedures for reporting violations of these policies, can dramatically reduce your exposure in lawsuits.
  2. Training of your supervisors is essential to firing without fear. Day to day careless comments made by a first line supervisor often comprise the most damaging evidence in an employee lawsuit. Make it clear through training of every person with any supervisory authority that throwing an “Over the Hill” birthday party can indicate age discrimination, compliments about a woman’s clothes can be twisted into a sexual harassment complaint and grumbling about an employee’s reluctance to work on a Sunday can be perceived as religious discrimination. The behavior required of supervisors nowadays often defies common sense and human nature, so training is the only sure-fire way to know that your supervisors will not say or do something that the company will come to regret after a termination.
  3. Regular performance evaluations that honestly identify an employee’s short-comings are essential to a “good” termination for poor performance. No one should be surprised that he is being fired because at least a couple of prior poor performance reviews should have preceded the termination.
  4. Don’t fire anyone unless for disciplinary violations such as absenteeism unless you have warned him in writing at least a couple of times that his behavior is unacceptable. Those written warnings should include a plan for improvement and a statement that if his actions do not improve, he will be “subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.”
  5. Call your employment lawyer before you fire the employee. Your attorney will probably want discuss the employee’s entire employment to identify all the possible red flags that this particular employee’s record could wave. (Click here for a checklist for termination red flags when a Texas employee is involved.) Be prepared to send your lawyer your policy manual, the supervisory training records and the employee’s file for review. The lawyer may want also to talk to the employee’s direct supervisors to gauge any exposure there before advising you as to the wisdom of a job termination.
  6. Write a termination memo to give to the employee. It should briefly set out the policy violations that resulted in the employee’s job termination. This memo may be repeatedly scrutinized by the employee, her lawyers, the Texas Workforce Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and even a jury, so it must be worded carefully. However, don’t skip this step out of fear. The memo will prevent the “he said, she said” exaggerations if litigation does ensue and keep everybody focused on the nondiscriminatory reasons that the firing occurred.
  7. Terminate the employee when you are calm and well-rested and you have another trusted manager available to be a witness. Make the meeting brief. Just hand the employee the termination memo and ask if she has any questions. Stand firm on your decision and don’t argue with the employee. Assure the employee that she can return to gather her belongings at a mutually agreeable time (don’t just give her ten minutes to pack up her belongings and then march her out under armed guard). Let her leave with some dignity and wish her well.