Legal Question in Employment Law in Washington

Terminated Employee

Our company (7 employees) had an employee that was unreliable leave work for 16 work days without contacting us and when we tried to contact him his phone number had been disconnected. He would have been terminated when he returned but when he called on the 17th day my husband said go collect unemployment and state lack of work which also was true as we had to rearrange our employees hours to cover for his position. Now he calls and is trying to say that it was due to his medical condition and that he thought that we said go ahead and take all the time you need. How should we handle this when the unemployment office phones for details? I have much documentation regarding his poor work habits and non attention to detail as well as our meetings when we spoke with him over and over about his mistakes. Please help.


Asked on 2/20/08, 4:58 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Merry Kogut Key Peninsula Law

Re: Terminated Employee

Your mistake was wanting to help this jerk. You should be completely honest with Employment Security, including what you said in your message. The guy walked away from his job, period. End of story.

As far as temporary disability goes, if your company has no more than 7 employees, including you and your husband, the disability laws don't cover you (there has to be 8 in WA). (One proviso - if you are in a county or city with its own discrimination laws, such as Tacoma, Seattle, or King County, the local government laws probably DO cover you).

In regard to him saying "take all the time you need" it is just his word against yours, and, considering his bad work history, you sound more credible than him.

If all else fails you may have to hire a defense attorney. But I think what will happen is a lot of crying, moaning, and threats on this guy's part, and then he'll go away. Stay strong, and keep all the records you have on him for at least three years.

Good luck!

Merry

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Answered on 2/21/08, 11:47 am


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