Wrongful termination is the root of many employment lawsuits. Some employers spend thousands of dollars to compensate employees who take action against them. Thus, it’s crucial to approach termination from the right angle.
Here are two factors to consider when dismissing an employee:
The reasons
Employees make mistakes, but not all cases warrant termination. Training employees regularly, communicating expectations clearly and reassigning workers to tasks they are better fit for are some of the actions you can take before dismissing one.
However, you may be justified to terminate an employee in certain circumstances, including continued poor performance/incompetence, gross misconduct and breach of the employment contract.
The reason should be for the termination should be clearly stated Further, you should be able to provide evidence for it. For example, you should have paperwork proving an employee’s poor performance for the past few months, and the feedback/warnings you sent.
If you are eliminating a position in your company, you should establish the reason for doing so. You should have documents authenticating your need to reduce costs, make staffing changes due to company reorganization and so on.
Retaliation accusations
If the employee you want to dismiss has filed a complaint, perhaps about harassment or discrimination, or requested a reasonable disability or religious accommodation, you should be extra careful. This is because they may state the termination is a retaliation against them, especially if the complaint was recent.
Nonetheless, if you have a justifiable reason to fire them, you can still do so, but you may need solid evidence to support your decision.
Dismissing an employee can be complicated. It will be best to get legal guidance to make informed decisions.
