Fahrside asked:
We are a small agency and I have yet to turn to legal consult on this, and will probably shortly. I have one employee who has made accusations about another employee’s conduct. Specifically, that the employee has been trying to recruit member of the public that this agency serves into her religion, Jehovah’s Witnesses. I have discussed this with the accused employee and since the accuser provided specific names of those who have been targeted we approached them about the accusation.
We are a small agency and I have yet to turn to legal consult on this, and will probably shortly. I have one employee who has made accusations about another employee’s conduct. Specifically, that the employee has been trying to recruit member of the public that this agency serves into her religion, Jehovah’s Witnesses. I have discussed this with the accused employee and since the accuser provided specific names of those who have been targeted we approached them about the accusation.
Those who have been approached have 100% refuted the claim that they were ever solicited with information regarding Jehovah’s Witnesses.
My question is, what are the ramifications for the accusing employee? Is this a firing offense? Our personnel manual doesn’t provide specific guidance on how to handle such a situation.
Ruth
Tags: Accusations, Guidance, Jehovah S Witnesses
put them both in a room with a land shark who will eat them. Problem solved.
You should definitely discuss this with a lawyer, however firing an employee for making a report in good faith is considered retaliation and you can get sued for doing so. Before you even think about firing the employee, you had better be sure you can prove in court that the complaint made by the employee was not in good faith.
If you have counseled this employee and they are still doing this, isn’t that “insubordination,” by not following your orders to stop. Write them up since you gave them a verbal warning , two more write ups and “Bye-Bye.
Set the two employees in chairs facing each other, where their knees are about 6 inches apart. Make them stare at each other untill they start laughing. They’ll hug and make up, you’ll see.
If this is a valuable employee, a good slap on the wrist with a written warning. If not a value to the company, let them go. The reason I say this is because, these people that you have asked may be covering for this other person b/c religion in the work place is so sensitive and they know this person may have a lot on the line. As we well know a good employee is hard to find.
1. Document everything that has happen and all the people u questioned
2. Report to the employee that brought the case to u’r attention and explain to them that the company has done an investigation and has found no Fault nor does the story have any truth according to her witnesses
3. Let the accusing employee know that this is Harassment and that if these things continue you could fire her.
You don’t say what state you are in. If you are in an “At Will” state, you may terminate the employee for any reason. If you feel that there is good reason to believe that they are causing a disturbance at work, you may fire them.
If you are in a “Right to Work” state, you may have problems since this is not addressed in your employee handbook.
I think as is already said, you need to be very careful about terminating this employee - and also careful if you decide to discipline them in some way that will go on their record. They can bring a retaliatory or defamation case against you. If they did, of course the burden of proof would be on them and their case would be weak. That said, you specifically say you have nothing in the manual so I doubt you have covered this type of harassment in your employee contract; if you had you’d have a strsaight case for gross misconduct under harassment leading to their termination. When firing is ambiguous, that can make it harder to prove it was justified.
The accusing employee has violated the other employees human rights in terms of their right to privacy to enjoy their religion, as well as potentially showing religious discrimation and bigotry towards them in the work place, specifically by taking something that is irrelevant to the work place (their religion) and bringing it to the workplace for maliciously making false accusations. The JW emlpoyee could sue them for damages under any of this. They could also potentially sue you if you don’t protect them from it as you have a duty of care to protect employees from this by setting in place policies that reflect the law on such matters.
Before you speak to the two employees involved any further, I would seek legal advice and make sure that nothing is held on record other than what is absolutely necessary - no names of witnesses or those involved should be released to any employee as even sharing unecessarily that much information can be a violation of their rights. Sorry I can’t advise you anymore but just some things to be aware of - I’m sure you are already. Lastly, I’m sure you’ll want to revamp your personnel manual and contracts to include flase accusations under other forms of harassment which it is in the law.
The questioner seems to ask about how to proceed against a false accuser in his employ.. ..
In most cases, an employee who knowingly and materially lies violates a fundamental requirement for his employment. He may be dismissed for cause, especially if his accusations are in writing and have been repeatedly refuted by multiple independent sources.
The fact that the dismissed employee seems to be a religious bigot need not be mentioned in any report, since the facts of her material prevarication are sufficient to disqualify her from further employment.