Termination of incarcerated employee

System

We have an employee that is in jail for about 2 weeks now. The employee's arrest caused her to reach the total of occurrences in the absentee program that is cause for termination. The Articles of Agreement between the Union and The Company states that "In the disciplinary process when an employee reaches the "final" step, the Plant Manager, The Union President and the employee will meet to discuss the reasons for his absenteeism prior to discharge." We have sent a certified letter to the employees home address one week ago notifying her of the need to contact the Union President to arrange this meeting and have not received receipt of the letter yet. Is the Company obligated to abide by the contract since the employee is in jail and has not received the letter and obviously can not attend a meeting? Can the Company just terminate employment?

Theresa Gegen TX

Seems to me like you should try to follow the contract as closely as possible. In this case, I would notify the union that the employee has been notified of the need to meet by certified letter, that the employee has not responded, and that if the union rep wants to meet with the company about the issue, the company will do so. (I would try to put the monkey back on the union -- since they are the representative of the employee). Give the union a certain date to get back to you. If the union wants to meet about it, do so, then let them state their position then make your decision. If the union refuses to meet, then I would go ahead and terminate.

Good Luck!!

Peyton Irby MS

>We have an employee that is in jail for about 2 weeks now. The
>employee's arrest caused her to reach the total of occurrences in the
>absentee program that is cause for termination. The Articles of
>Agreement between the Union and The Company states that "In the
>disciplinary process when an employee reaches the "final" step, the
>Plant Manager, The Union President and the employee will meet to
>discuss the reasons for his absenteeism prior to discharge." We have
>sent a certified letter to the employees home address one week ago
>notifying her of the need to contact the Union President to arrange
>this meeting and have not received receipt of the letter yet. Is the
>Company obligated to abide by the contract since the employee is in
>jail and has not received the letter and obviously can not attend a
>meeting? Can the Company just terminate employment?

Peyton Irby MS

>We have an employee that is in jail for about 2 weeks now. The
>employee's arrest caused her to reach the total of occurrences in the
>absentee program that is cause for termination. The Articles of
>Agreement between the Union and The Company states that "In the
>disciplinary process when an employee reaches the "final" step, the
>Plant Manager, The Union President and the employee will meet to
>discuss the reasons for his absenteeism prior to discharge." We have
>sent a certified letter to the employees home address one week ago
>notifying her of the need to contact the Union President to arrange
>this meeting and have not received receipt of the letter yet. Is the
>Company obligated to abide by the contract since the employee is in
>jail and has not received the letter and obviously can not attend a
>meeting? Can the Company just terminate employment?

Peyton Irby MS

i agree with theresa's suggestion. you have done what you can do as far as notification of the employee. propose the meeting with the union and go forward with the termination with them or memorialize their desire not to meet and go forward with the termination.

LindaS

I agree with everyone that you should notify the union, in writing of the situation and give them a specific amount of time (I have used three days) to make a decision regarding their decision to meet with you. In my experience with unions in the same situation is that they do not want to go through with the meeting and do NOT file a grievance once the termination has occurred.

One last thing, in my experience with a termination like this, the employee IS granted unemployment if they file once they are released. I'm not sure how your state is but in WI this is how it works.

Good Luck!