Elimination of position

vwindham · June 2003

I need guidance! I have never had to terminate someone becasuse the company is eliminating the postion. We are going to outsource the work that this person is doing. What are some of the procedures I need to be sure to follow? What can the pitfalls be? What do we offer the ee? Do we need to do this in letter form or just on a seperation? As you can see I am VERY uncomfortable with this. I am relatively new here and I don't want to miss anything that may cause the company a problem later. This is a highly volitle ee and I don;t want to leave any doors open for legal action. Also, we are going to offer ee independent contractor work with us after termination, could this be a problem?Thanks for the experience of all of you! I can't tell you how much it means to me!

SVHRAZ · June 2003

First off-is the employee exempt/non-exempt? If exempt did the employee sign an employment agreement at the time of hire? If yes, does the employment agreement cover "termination"?

You really have to becareful with position elimination, specially if the employee is exempt.

Look into those items first.

vwindham · June 2003

This is an exempt position but there are no signed agreements.We are non-union.

ray a · June 2003

I have treated position elimination much like a permanent layoff. We do not have employment contracts, so not worried about the issues SVHRAZ raises. I explain to the ee what we are doing and why and tell them it is not due to anything they have done wrong. It is hard enough that they are losing their job, I want to make sure they realize it is not because of any failure on their part. We have given severance to exempt employees in this case. Typically, they ask if they are eligible for unemployment insurance. I tell them that decision is up to the unemployment office, but people usually qualify for unemployment benefits, but it is not my decision to make.

Do it compassionately, but objectively.

sonny · June 2003

I'm just crious as to why you would want to offer a Highly volatile employee work as an independent contractor after you eliminate his position??

vwindham · June 2003

Beleive me, it is not my preference, however,although I can give my opinion, I don;t call those shots.

owenlady · June 2003

My concern would also be offering this person work as an independent contractor once you have eliminated the position. Why are you eliminating, is it due to lack of work, etc.

We recently eliminated a Director level position and offered severance and outplacement along with a defined timeframe for continuation of benefits. So far, so good. I am just waiting the 8 day time frame prior to processing the check as I have received the signed release, but I would have been very leery of doing this and then having the individual return to perform work of any type.

Don't know if that helps.

Carole

skyrocket · June 2003

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 06-24-03 AT 03:41PM (CST)[/font][p]I assume you are a California employer. Some things to remember for an involuntary termination are:
1. You must give a status change notice (something that indicates the individual has been separated from employment). They use this for the Unemployment Insurance office.
2. You must provide a copy of the Unemployment Insurance Brochure (available online at the EDD website).

Don't forget COBRA benefits, if the individual is covered on your benefit plans.

You have the right to lay off an individual for business necessity. Since you are now outsourcing, it is harder to show that you gave the job to someone outside of a "protected class". You must be prepared, however, to prove business necessity and the reason that particular individual was choose (rather than offering him/her a different position for which he/she was qualified). I say this because you mentioned this person was "problematic".

Incidentally, exempt or non-exempt status would not be relevant in California as concerns a layoff. But you must be certain that there were no implicit promised of employment for any particular term. If you have stand-alone At Will Employment policies signed by new hires, this is helpful.

HR in CA · June 2003

I would be concerned as to why this employee would be offered independent contractor work. If the job was eliminated and then the employee is doing same or similar work, I think you could be in for trouble. Remember Microsoft a few years ago? Not many companies have the deep pockets of Mr. Bill Gates. In the perfect world the employee should be told that the position has been eliminated, if possible offer the employee severance and benefits. Even the best of employees can fly off the handle if you take away the income and insurance. I have found offering severance and extended health benefits is a small price to pay. Afterall HR is usually the one to deliver the bad news, and then becomes the target for their anger.

Elimination of position

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