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Terminated Employee (Theft) wants to review her Termination Paperwork
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Terminated Employee (Theft) wants to review her Termination Paperwork
Discuss employment-law issues such as family leave, overtime, disabilities law, harassment, immigration and termination.
We have an employee that was termed for misconduct-theft. She is a minority and is wanting a copy of her term paperwork. Do we have to give access to employment files to termed employees?
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Terminated Employee (Theft) wants to review her Termination Paperwork
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Terminated Employee (Theft) wants to review her Termination Paperwork
posted at 3/12/2010 8:59 AM EST
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Posts: 5
First: 3/12/2010 Last: 4/14/2010 |
We have an employee that was termed for misconduct-theft. She is a minority and is wanting a copy of her term paperwork. Do we have to give access to employment files to termed employees? |
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Terminated Employee (Theft) wants to review her Termination Paperwork
posted at 3/12/2010 9:27 AM EST
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Posts: 562
First: 11/12/2009 Last: 9/14/2011 |
Definitely check your state's laws regarding regulation of an employee's ability (or ex-employee, in this case) to review his or her file.
She may be doing this under the advice of an attorney. If your state does not require that the ex-employee be provided a copy of his or her file, then I would require a subpoena to grant access in a case like this. No reason to give a plaintiff attorney a free fishing expedition which might uncover actionable stuff than just the termination incident. |
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Terminated Employee (Theft) wants to review her Termination Paperwork
posted at 3/12/2010 10:53 AM EST
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Posts: 562
First: 11/12/2009 Last: 9/14/2011 |
I was unable to find anything more recent about this than 2008 by doing a quick online search. You will want to do a more thorough one yourself.
Unless there's been a change, Ohio does not have a law governing access to personnel files for private sector employees. |
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Terminated Employee (Theft) wants to review her Termination Paperwork
posted at 3/12/2010 5:50 PM EST
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Posts: 2146
First: 2/15/2006 Last: 9/14/2011 |
I could argue both sides. Sometimes giving them what they ask for can show the company is not hiding anything. Other times, you might not want to set a precedent of open records.
Honestly now is the time to seek legal counsel. Some things to consider: (1) Did you treat her the same as other employees who have been accused of misconduct due to theft? (2) Did you follow your written company policies? If not, were there other times you deviated? Why? (3) Do you have good solid proof of the theft? Do you have a termination report and did she sign the termination report? Did the report state the theft reason or did anyone try to soften the termination and wrote something different? (4) Have you allowed anyone else to keep their job who has been in the same situation? Only counsel will be able to tell you the best way to proceed once they know the details. |
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Terminated Employee (Theft) wants to review her Termination Paperwork
posted at 3/13/2010 4:08 AM EST
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Posts: 562
First: 11/12/2009 Last: 9/14/2011 |
My reluctance to disclose files comes from years practicing in California where terminated employees would often seek legal counsel even in prima facie cases (ex, bringing a firearm onto the worksite). I generally found that having employees explain to their prospective attorney the reasons for termination resulted in the employee being shown the door - and especially so if the attorney was going to have to spend time and money on a subpeona. Consequently, I was reluctant to provide copies of files to provide an opportunity for an attorney to potentially find some other "gotcha", however minor.
So I suppose that if you're confident in your termination processes and your employee record keeping, you could provide a copy upon request (keeping in mind any precedent you might be setting). I do agree with rrupert that withholding a copy might send the "hiding something" message. But I'd probably still come down on the side of not providing an attorney with a free fishing expedition. |
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