Legal Question in Employment Law in Wisconsin

process of employee termination - employers obligation

When an employee is terminated, or otherwise disciplined, is the employer required to pay the employee for the time that was spent being disciplined? And if the employer is indeed obligated to pay the employee, but fails to do so, is the termination still valid being that it was issued while the employee was not on the clock?

example:

An employee is asked to come in for a meeting at 900 am, is directed to wait on the premises, and is finally terminated at 1030 am. Is the employee entitled to 1.5 hr of pay. And if the employee is not paid for that time, is the termination valid?

If any laws are violated in the above example, are they criminal or civil violations?


Asked on 7/19/03, 11:00 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Mark Mahoney Cassiani Law Office, Wise Shepherd Law Office

Re: process of employee termination - employers obligation

Hello,

In general an employee can be terminated for any reason or no reason. The only exceptions include age, race, disability, religion. If you are paid by the hour, technically the should pay you for the time you work up to termination. If they don't you could sue for the loss, but it might cost you more than the pay is worth. As far as law violations, there are none that I know of in your description of facts. However, I have very few facts, so if you want a legal opinion you can rely on, give a couple employment lawyers a call and they can likely tell you over the phone whether or not you have a case.

Best wishes,

Mark J. Mahoney

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Answered on 7/20/03, 1:58 pm


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