Termination of Employee

System

Help! Need a little advised..really maybe a lot of advise. I work for a Transportation Company, have many drivers. My policy is that any of my drivers who are ticketed for speeding receive first a verbal warning which I follow-up the conversation with a written copy of the verbal warning, second offense written warning, third offense termination. This is for a three year period.

The situation is that I have a driver who was ticketed, we have had the verbal warning, he disagrees with the ticket and to some extent we do to, however, followed up with written copy and now he has contacted an attorney.He feels the warning is out of order.

I am ready to terminate his employment, but just a bit unsure of his reaction. He is now at an explosive temperament, which is the reason for needing to part ways. As the corporate office I am in Illinois, my driver was hired out of my Louisiana location. My question for any one in Louisiana do you see a problem with this termination.

Also might need any ideas for an approach with this employee.. want to keep this from being an out of control situation.

Thanks for your input!

Paul in Cannon Beach

The employee seems to be over-reacting a bit to the verbal warning. Contacting an attorney seems like a fairly serious step to take over what is essentially a slap on the hand.

That said, I am not sure I support your decision to terminate. Maybe I am missing something but it seems like this is a situation that could be worked through before talk of terminating the employee.

My advice would be to allow the employee to file an official protest of the verbal warning which would go in his file.

If this employee is contacting his attorney after a verbal warning, I doubt even the great minds of this forum could provide you verbage that would keep the situation from getting "out of control".

Get everyone to calm down and deal with the issue which seems to be the verbal warning. You are simply following your policy with the written warning but there is no reason the employee couldn't file a formal protest.

ray a

I'm not quite sure I follow you. Normally, you terminate employment after the 3rd offense, but it sounds like you want to terminate after the first offense in this situation only because of the ee's overreaction.

Is the driver disputing the ticket and trying to get it overturned? If so, I'd wait for that outcome before doing anything.

SMace

Paul gives good advice, but I'll add this. Tell the guy if he wants his warning gone, he has to get the ticket thrown out in court. Otherwise warning stands. He should be able to add his side of the story to the record.

It sounds like you want to terminate him because he has gone to an attorney. Terrible idea.

Take a deep breath and focus on the facts. People are getting emotional.

System

I am sorry to have caused confusion, however, what I did not include in the original statement is the explosive nature of comments and threats in the original letter which we received.

I have presented the letter to our attorney and his recommendation is to terminate the employee! We haul HAZ MAT materials and having an out of control employee is bad for anyone driving down the road.

Thanks for your input.

davids

I agree with others that as long as the ticket remains on his driving record, the warning is appropriate. As for the termination, it depends on exactly what the the threats were and what is your company's past practice, if any, on dealing with threats. If he threatened violence, as opposed to threatening to sue, I would support termination. You shouldn't have to wait until he acts out on the threats before you terminate. However, keep in mind that if a warning led him to make threats, terminaion might really set him off. Be prepared with security at the termination meeting.

marc

Threats of violence should not be tolerated. Thankfully, you have it in writing and this should go a long ways toward defending your actions.

I agree that the ticket is the triggering event. If he received it wrongfully, the courts have a whole process where this guy can get his day in court. Often, those traffic justices can negotiate for lesser charges - like driving with bad windshield wipers. Not a moving violation, which might mitigate teh warning.

Now lthat he has made threats, it's a whole new ballgame.

SMace

Agreed.

System

Thanks for your comments. I am fairly new to this forum and must say that I love having others to communicate with. I read these daily as time permitting and find it to be a great resource!!

In the crazy world of HR it is nice to see others going crazy or fighting it right along with you.
x0:)

HR In NH

I absolutely support your termination decision. You can not and should not have to tolerate an employee demonstrating an explosive temperment to anyone in your company.

There are other ways to disagree with a warning or any employment decision. To show total disrespect towards his company indicates he is unstable.

I would definitely takes steps to protect yourself and your company if and when you terminate him. I would call the police to be present during the termination, have all his belongings packed up by a coworker with a manager present and ready to go, terminate all security access, etc.

Good luck. HR is definitely not easy.