Progressive Discipline of Employees

Having an employment agreement clarifies what the employer and employee should expect from each other. It indicates that the employee will perform the duties and responsibilities that his/her position entails. In turn, the employee will pay them in a timely manner, including the benefits and bonuses. 

As a business owner or an employer, what will you do if your employee failed to fulfill what’s expected of him or her? Are you going to turn a blind eye and let that employee go on with what he’s doing? Or will you terminate that employee immediately? 

Neither of these options is favorable for you as an employer. Instead of sudden termination or avoiding confrontation, you should implement a policy of progressive discipline with the intention of helping the employee improve their work performance. 

Progressive discipline is the process by which an employer can impose disciplinary measures of increasing level of severity to fix or improve employee’s performance at work. By issuing warnings and giving the employee the time and assistance to allow them to meet the standards for their performance, the employer can help with creating a fair and equitable workplace and improving the performance of its employees. On the other hand, repeated misconduct or unwillingness by the employee to meet expectations results in increasing severity of consequences up to and including dismissal of employee for cause and sends a clear message to the rest of the employees that misconduct will not be condoned or tolerated. 

How an Employment Lawyer Can Help You

An experienced employment lawyer can provide expert guidance on what steps you need to take to discipline an employee instead of terminating them for cause immediately. Not taking the necessary steps to address the situation might lead to wrongful dismissal or a claim for constructive dismissal by the employee. 

As an employer, you must ensure that you have thorough workplace policies. Aside from creating these policies, you have to make sure that they are observed. These policies serve as a guide to help employees perform their tasks better. Only when an employee fails to reach the objective stated in the plan can termination be explored. 

We can help employers with:

• Counsel on the appropriate disciplinary measure, taking into account the situational context and employment agreements
• Issuing written warnings
• Disciplinary suspensions and demotions
• Conducting an internal workplace investigation
• Constructive Dismissal 
• Suspension pending investigation
• Last Chance Agreements
• Termination of Employee
• Managing risks of litigation
• Avoiding claims of human rights violations
• Discipline policy
• Performance Improvement Plan
• And more… 

Consult an employment lawyer before taking further steps. 

The labor and employment lawyers at Roberts and Obradovic have extensive experience dealing with small businesses and big corporations. Call us at (647) 724-5179 or filling out our contact form for a free, no-obligation consultation!