Do you have a specific procedure for
terminating employees? Do you conduct
exit interviews? Do you conduct
fair and objective investigations into
the events leading up to termination?
Do you ensure that your employees
know the rules and the penalties for
breaking them?
These are just a few questions that a
construction industry employer should
ask before discharging an employee —
less politely known as firing. When it
comes to avoiding employment-related
litigation, the most dangerous time for
an employer is just before and after terminating
an employee. It is then that
the risk of incurring liability for punitive
damages is highest. For instance,
in Rawson v. Sears Roebuck and Co., a
jury awarded a former Sears employee
$19 million