Termination due to lack of work

caffeine

1 - Would employee terminated for lack of work be entitled to unemployment comp if he was given an option of termination or offered a chance to "voluntarily resign?
I know he would be entitled to unemployment comp if he is terminated for lack of work but not sure if he would be entitled to same if it's a "forced" resignation.


2 - Any particular legal procedures, etc., that I should follow in terminating an employee due to lack of work?

3 - Employee will be terminated before Christmas. We will be paying him for remainder of December and full month of January, 2009 plus offering him COBRA and any other benefits to which he is entitled. Legally does it matter if he works on through December if he wants or is it preferable to have him leave directly after he is told he's being terminated due to lack of work?

4 - This is the first time I have been involved in a termination due to lack of work and I'm not well versed on how this differs from a termination for cause or at-will termination.

Any help you can give me would be very much appreciated.

Thank you.

Susan in La

1. Depending on your unemployment adjudicators, he should be able to draw if you indicate on the paperwork he was allowed to resign to avoid a lay off.

3. Usually, when someone is let go, it is better to not let them linger. If they have access to any sensitive data they could sabatage it, and it just generally is bad for morale of others for them to hang around. Make the day you tell them they are laid off their last day, you won't get much work out of them after that anyway.

NaeNae55

We decide to let them work, or not, on a case by case basis. Anything to do with finances or IT is handled immediately. But loyal employees with a lot of years (and few opportunitites to do real damage) might be offended if we rushed them out the door unnecessarily. Remember, other employees are watching to see how you handle this. Protect your company first, but try to do it with grace and compassion.

In this case, lack of work means the employee will probably just be standing around anyway and distracting others. If you decide to send them home early, make sure all your employees know that you continued to pay them to their actual term date.

Good luck!


Nae