Any legal limits on suspension?
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To my knowledge, there are no legal limits on how long you can suspend an employee you are disciplining. Is that correct?
We are changing a policy that previously said CMV Drivers who have their license suspended or who are dropped from our insurance because of too many violations will be fired. The President would like to change that to a suspension. The question I've been asked is, "is there any legal reason why we can't suspend an employee for the length of their license suspension?"
I don't think there is, but I wanted to see if anyone else is aware of something before I respond.
Thanks!
We are changing a policy that previously said CMV Drivers who have their license suspended or who are dropped from our insurance because of too many violations will be fired. The President would like to change that to a suspension. The question I've been asked is, "is there any legal reason why we can't suspend an employee for the length of their license suspension?"
I don't think there is, but I wanted to see if anyone else is aware of something before I respond.
Thanks!
Comments
As you know, there is a lawyer out there for everyone. I can't think of many scenarios that might demonstrate that exposure, but what if the EE with a suspended license is driving his/her car and wearing your company's uniform, gets in an accident and you are subsequently sued with some sort of negligence theory?
Ok, ok - probably a wild idea that a lawyer would sue someone on such a thin line of reasoning - but others might think of more concrete examples of possible exposure.
The EE might be denied UI filing rights, and that could be detrimental also.
It just seems unreasonable to suspend someone in this manner.
I can see Marc's point if the license was suspended indefinitely, and I am not familiar with the DMV laws to know how they work. I would say if someone had a license suspended more than once, I'd probably show them the door because they ought not be driving for you.
It seems to me that 30 days is the point in time that matters most to the folks that regulate employment from the sidelines.
All our employees are required to carry a current security clearance card. (criminal history review processed through Dept of Public Safety) Occasionally a card will be denied or revoked based on the employee's criminal history. The employee can appeal the decision and sometimes will get their card reinstated.
In this situation, we give the employee 30 days unpaid suspension to file an appeal. If the appeal is not resolved favorably within the 30 days we terminate their employment. If they favorably resolve their appeal on the 31st day, for example, we happily rehire them (if we want them and the job is still available) and don't rehire them if we don't want them.
We document the discussion, including that the 30 day suspension is unpaid, and that we do not guarantee their job (or specific schedule, pay, etc.) will be available, even if their appeal is approved.
First you are setting a practice, what if there are three drunk driving convictions and you have to reinstate that driver after 6 months. You reinstate the driver, he has an accident on the job and kills someone while driving,. I can just imagine both the publicity and the liability.
As to the actual question, I am not aware of any limits to an unpaid suspension.
I'm curious, what would a suspension accomplish? If the employee has had their license suspended, they can't drive until they get it back. If the employee has too many driving violations, why would your company want them to drive THEIR vehicles? I'm just not sure what suspension would do here. It sounds like your President would like the option of having the person stay employed with the company. Maybe your policy should talk about a mandatory reassignment to XYZ job (that doesn't include driving)? Maybe it would mean less pay, if the company needed to reassign the employee?
Jeez, it seems to me that if you hire someone to drive and they can't because of numerous driving violations or a suspended license, you find someone else to do the job. I'm not quite sure why he would not see it in this same manner...
By the way - good to see you post, it's been a while hasn't it?
For some reason, your bosses think they can keep you so busy that you have no time to post.
What's up with that?
I think the reason he wants to change this policy is that we are a small company and we have several employees who do their routine jobs and who also drive for us occasionally. (We employ chemists who process hazardous waste and often those same chemists go to customer sites to pick up waste.) He's afraid that an employee who only drives on a part-time basis but is valuable in his/her other duties will get automatically terminated for license suspension/being dropped from our insurance. It's also a political thing around here because employees feel it's unfair that they can be dropped from our insurance coverage for personal infractions in addition to infractions committed in our vehicles.
As it stands now, the policy still says "will be subject to discipline, up to and including termination."