Lawful Termination
Lawful termination of an employee can be a complicated procedure to go through. There are very specific guidelines that must be followed for a termination to be considered lawful, and failure to comply can lead to potentially disastrous lawsuits. PEP has a team ready for you to consult with if you are considering termination of an employee. We can advise you if you have sufficient grounds for terminating an employee lawfully or not by asking a few questions, such as:
- Is the employee on a contract? If so, upon completion of the contract, the employee can be terminated without the contract being renewed. If not, you must have other causes to terminate their employment.
- Is there a provision in the contract that allows termination with an agreed upon payment or notice? If so, the employment may be ended by either giving notice or the agreed upon payment. If not, other conditions must apply.
- Do you have “just cause” to end the employment? This is a harder one to answer. Generally, the offense must be so serious that it affects the core of the employee relationship (theft, breach of security, assault on another employee, etc.) One offense is only acceptable if the offense is unusually grave. Typically, the offense over which an employee is terminated must be a repeated pattern of behavior.
- Can you give the employee “reasonable notice or pay” without just cause? This may seem like a catch-all answer, but determining what reasonable notice or pay is can be as complicated as determining if you can fire the employee or not.
- Of course, you may choose to end an employee’s time with your company even if none of the above conditions apply. However, to eliminate the risk of retaliation, the termination must be lawful.
As you can see, lawful termination is an issue that requires vast knowledge. PEP has a team of attorneys available for additional consulting. We want you to be prepared with as much knowledge as possible when deciding on the lawful termination of an employee.
