EE acused of serious wrongdoing

Elizabeth

We have strong evidence that one of our employees did something that not only violates company policy, but may even involve criminal charges. Before we jump the gun, we want to put him on paid administrative leave while we investigate further.

Our plan is that the CEO will actually call him in, give him a brief explanationa and tell him he is on PAID Administrative Leave.

What other measures should we be aware of? For instance, since placing him on paid administrative leave is not disciplinary, we are not required to give him prior notice or be concerned with Garrity or Weingarten rights, correct? That would come later when we have the Pre-D hearing. We are planning to have the CEO's administrative asst. witness the conversation when the CEO talks to the guy later today. We decided HR would stay out of it for now since this guy reports indirectly to the CEO.

Does this sound like we're on solid ground?

Hunter1

Wow, this is a minefield. Accepting the facts as stated, I believe you're going in the right direction, but you have to have a lot of confidence in the CEO and the information you've received. This could turn into an investigatory meeting at the drop of a hat, or accusations which aren't substantiated. It's very hard to keep an employee from blurting something out, depending on the employee's personality, and responding with a follow-up question. Is the CEO familiar with Weingarten and when it kicks in? Will he/she know how to keep the conversation limited? Is the employee represented (union)? If you have more experience with these issues, I'd suggest that you be involved (or handle it). Don't all employees report indirectly to the CEO?
Good luck

San Francisco

My understanding of Weingarten for non-union employees is that management does not have to inform an employee of that right. I am not familiar with the other one you mentioned. Can you tell me what that involves?

Elizabeth

Elizabeth

Elizabeth, thanks for responsing. Here is my brief knowledge of the laws I feel we may be dealing with. I'm not fully certain which are Ohio laws and which are federal. I would be great to have a condensed summary of these types of laws without having to pour through lengthy documents to get to the real requirements in laymans terms. (but of course if it were too easy, we wouldn't need lawyers...) Maybe I'll throw that request out to the forum.

Garrity - Generally, under the so-called Garrity rule, when a public employee is compelled to give answers as part of a disciplinary investigation, neither the employee's answers nor the fruits of those answers can be used against the employee in a subsequent criminal prosecution.

Piper - The right to an attorney/counsel is provided to any person appearing as a witness before any public official, department, board, bureau, commission, agency or representative thereof. This protection is not limited just to the individual who is the subject of the proceeding or investigation, or just to employees.

Weingarten - The rights of employees to have present a union representative during investigatory interviews were announced by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 1975 case (NLRB vs. Weingarten, Inc. 420 U.S. 251, 88 LRRM 2689). These rights have become known as the Weingarten rights. On July 10, 2000, in one of the most significant labor decisions of the Clinton era, the National Labor Relations Board extended to nonunion employees the right, already held by union employees, to bring along a co-worker to a disciplinary meeting with an employer.

Loudermill - due process rights including notification of charges and a pre-D meetings, etc. This is mostly (if not excusively) for Police officers.

Elizabeth from Ohio

Crout

Is your company in the public, or private sector? If private, why would Garrity be a factor? Assuming your EE is non-union, putting him/her on paid leave while the company investigates is perfectly reasonable. If you find out that company policy has been violated, then take the appropriate disciplinary action. If you additionally find out that laws have been broken, then call the D.A's office. You are under no obligation to cover anything up for the EE, BUT your investigation should to be extremely thorough and professional.

Pork

Elizabeth: Based on the words in your posting, in our private company, I would be the one to inform the individual that an investigation is underway and he/she is hereby notified that he/she is suspended pending the completion of the investigation. If hourly, we pay for the hours worked and if salaried (EXEMPT) we pay regardless, and get to the facts as soon as possible; reach a decision to terminate or return to regular duty. If the employee was innocent of the charges, we would give him/her 8 hours per day away from work for the number of days away. We would apologize for the inconvience and move on to the next issue. Probably doesn't but my 2 cents just would not stand back, Pork