Taking Control Over Wrongful Termination Issues

Industry Voices

More than 40 years after attorney Lin Farley brought the term “sexual harassment” to the public consciousness, many people who have experienced harassment finally are getting the opportunity to share their stories and have their voices heard.

But the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements aren’t just about catharsis and justice on an individual scale. In 2018, we’re witnessing a broad reckoning about what it means to have and wield power, and a shift in the way organizations operate across industries.

It’s a lot to process. If you’re a business leader taking another look at your organization and considering how to protect your team from harassment, you may find yourself in a tough and emotionally fraught situation. You’re likely to come across areas, patterns and people you need to address – without a clear plan as to how to address them. You may feel unsure and overwhelmed, pulled in multiple directions by divergent concerns and stakeholders. 

What Is Wrongful Termination?

 To be wrongfully terminated is to be fired illegally. It may involve a violation of federal or state anti-discrimination laws or a contractual breach. Every legal interpretation of wrongful termination, however, can be considered under a single, broad definition: an employee was terminated for reasons that go against federal, state or tribunal laws.

Courts have upheld the following as defensible bases for a wrongful termination claim:

The Impact of Wrongful Termination

Issues related to wrongful termination, including the reluctance to terminate problematic employees for fear of provoking a retaliation claim, are a major drain on any organization. 

Wrongful Termination Claims Eat Up Time

For starters, claims consume a great deal of time. According to attorneys experienced in labor and employment law, it can take up to three years to resolve a wrongful termination claim. 

Wrongful Termination Claims Are Expensive

And then there’s your bottom line. Awards in a wrongful termination suit range between $1 and $43 million, with a mean of $134,000 and a median of $797,000. Even if you ultimately prevail over a claim, there still are administrative costs, attorneys’ fees and lost revenue associated with a legal dispute. 

Wrongful Termination Claims Take a Toll on Your Culture

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there’s the impact on your culture. A wrongful termination or retaliation case can erode employees’ trust in management and engagement at work. The same goes for potential candidates. Keep in mind that approximately 90% of job-seekers say it’s important to work for companies that embrace transparency, according to a Glassdoor survey.

But an employer can’t afford to do nothing about difficult employees. Bad workers eat away at organizational culture over time, too. They also increase the probability of criminal behavior.

Discipline and Termination: What to Do

Seeing as you can’t risk doing nothing about badly behaving employees, here’s what employers should do to reduce their risk of post-termination litigation:

Take a systematic approach to addressing discipline and termination. Don’t leave it up to a single person to address issues of discipline and termination alone. Use a system to track disciplinary procedures and terminations across your organization’s departments and locations. The system should be overseen by your leadership team and adhere to your organizational policy.

Build a repeatable process. While each workplace incident prompting the discipline or termination of an employee is unique, your organization’s approach to discipline and termination should follow the same basic pattern and structure. Consistency shows courts and regulators that you give workers equal treatment regardless of each employee’s identifying characteristics or the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Document everything. We have a saying here at Compli: If it wasn’t documented, it didn’t happen. Make sure to assiduously record every interaction and decision related to an employee’s discipline or termination in as timely a manner as possible. The goal is to be able to produce a report – that is, proof of what happened – to any inquiring party, now or in the distant future.
Tighten up one of your greatest areas of risk so you can focus on running your business and keeping your most valuable resource – your employees – happy.

Kynzie Sims is an attorney serving as Compli’s Legal Content Product Manager.