Handling employees who are hard to handle article

Balloonman1

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-07-06 AT 11:17AM (CST)[/font][br][br]Read this article.........pretty lame responses......no you cannot fire an employee who xyz. The article was pretty worthless other than repeating the basic mantra of protection.

How about Irene Injured and an answer like:
You cannot fire an employee who files a workers' compensation claim or an employee who is helping someone exercise that right. However if her injuries are do to carelessness or violating safety policies, then you can apply your progressive discipline as long as you are consistent in doing so. You can and should discipline unsafe acts.......do not let the outcomes drive your actions.

My $0.02 worth,
Balloonman

pork1

BALLOONMAN: I do not understand your post and what response you might be seeking or what HR issue are you interested in creating a discussion.

HELP! PORK

HRinNH

It's Friday...a good time to decompress before going home.

Irie

B'man: I'm confused too. What's your question?

ray a

Read the Q&A article on the home page of the forum, it's the same title as his thread title. His post is a commentary on the article.

System

B-man, I understood perfectly what you were getting at - maybe because I just got done reading the Q&A article and was thinking the exact same thing when I read the advice not to fire someone who keeps having accidents. As far as I'm concerned, if an employee can't keep themselves out of the E.R. because they are careless, accident prone and generally stupid, I'll fire them anyway and fight the battles that may be waged

Paul in Cannon Beach

I think Balloonman is full of hot air this time.

The scenarios are a bit exaggerated but the overall article's point is that there are protections that employees have under certain situations.

Perhaps the focus of the article is too much on what you can't do and not on what you can. Still, I thought it had some value.

Balloonman1

Sorry I cut out early on Friday.....had a big party I was guest of honor at....

NO it was about the Q&A article.........it was a joke.......... sorry Paul, but a first year lawyer could have done a better job than whoever the lazy bum was who wrote this article.

Besides weak examples........ it made it sound like you could not fire people who repeatedly get injured.........untrue....

Balloonman

Paul in Cannon Beach

Q: Irene Injured is always getting hurt on the job. Last month, she was injured when she inadvertently stapled herself with the electric stapler. Last week, she left work early again for another migraine headache due to her noisy workspace, which is located next to the copier/scanner. And just this morning, she slipped on the icy sidewalk in the company's parking lot and had to go to the emergency room for treatment. She's constantly getting hurt, and our workers' comp rates are going to increase. Can we fire Irene?

A: You may not discriminate against an employee for receiving or attempting to receive workers' compensation benefits or for assisting another employee in filing or pursuing a claim.



Bman, I am guessing this is the example you are referring to. What part of the answer do you disagree with?

lorrie

The answer is incomplete. The question is "Can we fire Irene?" The answer is YES.

It may be true that you cannot fire someone FOR FILING a w/c claim, but you CAN fire someone who does not follow safe procedures, etc. If the employee is constantly getting hurt there is probably a reason. Investigate, determine responsibility, and terminate if appropriate.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Not to belabor this but the original scenario didn't include any evidence that the oft-injured employe was not following safety procedures.

I would think that firing Irene, for example, for not following safety guidelines would be a risky move if such discipline had not been consistently applied.

Otherwise, if I was her attorney, I would just argue that the termination was a pretext for illegal discrimination.