Volatile Termination: Strategies to avoid Allegations of Wrongful Termination

Employers have always avoided the termination either because it is not easy to terminate someone or because it can be difficult to defend any allegations of wrongful termination.

Employers need to be aware of the cost of these actions to avoid litigation, fines & penalties and even criminal sanctions. Employers need to ask if they have the protections they need when they make decisions on termination, reduction in force, demotion, suspensions and disciplinary actions. Cases of wrongful termination have emerged and increased since the late 2000 year. Research has identified the following factors in this increase:

• Employees more aware and knowledgeable of the workplace rights
• Employees taking chances in making “a killing” by charging discrimination
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) establishing increased awareness on how employees can make these charges
• New whistleblower protections for employees who turn in Employers
• More resources on websites by Department of Labor (DOL) providing employees with ways to confirm if Employers are violating current regulations

Because of these and other factors, Employers are now more than ever, at risk of litigation against termination decisions. The EEOC has established definitions and guidelines of what constitutes discrimination and what employees are part of “protected classes” and discrimination claims. Now that there have been additional protections under EEOC, Employers should consider these regulations and prepare for those potential Risks.

This Booklet write by our expert writer/speaker Margie Faulk, PHR, SHRM-CP is a senior level human resources professional with over 14 years of HR management and compliance experience. A current Compliance Advisor for HR Compliance Solutions, LLC, and this is intended to provide an overview of the Volatile Termination to provide information on how employers can step up their efforts in ensuring immigration compliance. (e-Book size: 8 x 11 format 16 pages)

Learning Objectives:

• Termination regulations in different states
• Staging of Termination to Reduce Risk and Increase Safety of employees!
• Retaliation regulations and the impact in terminations
• Identification of regulatory agencies and the enforcement focus on trending workplace regulations
• Critical reasons why managers should be trained on the termination best practices to ensure safety from potential violence
• How weapons can impact termination decisions
• How managers can be vicariously liable for actions or non-actions in the workplace and be fined instead of the employer in some termination decisions
• Which regulations are more than likely to target employers on termination decisions?
• Learn how employees should be terminated with dignity respect and within regulations
• Learn how to mitigate wrongful termination allegations before they happen
• Create a termination checklist that will reduce your risk when making a decision to terminate
• Gain knowledge of the EEOC regulations and guidelines to prevent allegations of discrimination or wrongful termination
• Create a policy that will assist managers in terminating employees without fear of retribution from the regulatory agencies and employees
• Use training of your managers to reduce your risk since you can be held liable for Managers/Supervisors with bad management and poor judgment in handling employees
• Teach managers how to document performance issues in preparation
• Develop a termination process that will ensure consistency, fairness, objectivity and reduce risks