Employment at will – Case studies
with
Moruf Kolawole Nasir
(Experienced HR professional)
nmkolawole@gmail.com; jarushub@gmail.com
In continuation of our last week’s article on employment-at-will, below are the case studies as promised, and my comments in respect of each of the cases.
NB: Minor editing was done on the reported (quoted) cases.
Case 1:
“More blessing to you sir,
I want you to explain this to me. I was terminated from my employment. Am I supposed to claim a month salary from my employer for terminating my employment without notice and without committing any offence?
Thanks ABC ”
My comment
Mr. ABC, it’s a bit difficult for me to say anything on this matter without access to your termination letter and your contract/letter of employment.
I will also like to have an idea of your company’s policy on resignation/termination; this will give me insight into what is claimable and what is not.
This is so because the labour law’s position is a bit different from what companies adopt (e.g., by the labour law the one month notice is applicable if the staff has worked up to 5 years and above. Two weeks for 2-5 years service etc)
Therefore, I need to know what your company’s policies on such issues are, to enable me be in a better position to state what you are entitled to.
Finally, I need to know whether or not the letter indicts you of anything that may deprive you of such entitlements.
An addendum: By the statutory requirement, when an employee is terminated, the employer is expected to pay such employee off. Unfortunately, this is rarely done as employers either indict the sacked staff or give one flimsy reason or the other why the employee will not be paid; our weak legal system is also not helping matter.
Case 2:
It was a telephone conversation between the person and me.
“My boss bullied me and walked me out of his office. Due to this his bullying attitude I could not continue working with him in the company for the sake of my safety, so when I got out of his office I put in my resignation to take immediate effect. Being aware of the one month notice or salary in lieu, I left my one month outstanding salary in lieu of the notice. Since then I have been receiving information of various threat from him. He has threatened to hand me over to the police. To achieve this they wrote back to reject my resignation letter. ‘I refer to your letter of resignation dated 13/12/2013 which was received on 16/12/2013.Management has reviewed your letter and consider same inappropriate and has consequently rejected your request to resign’ and also indict me of ‘…non disclosure of ticket sales proceeds’ and that ‘various sum of money purportedly collected but not reflecting in any of our statements/account’.
“One will wonder if I was the company’s accountant, far from it. I only involved in the sales of some tickets and transactions, and before my resignation all my transactions were properly documented and reflected in the account. Even after his threat, I discussed with the accountant and he said his allegations hold no water, that all the necessary information is well accounted for and reflected in the account statement.
“He is threatening fire and brimstone that I must come to the office to work with accountant/auditors, to clear the account; yet grapevine has it that if I show face I may be implicated and arrested. What do you advice that I should do?”
My comment:
First of all, in all honesty are you sure you are being sincere with all what you just said? If yes, and you are totally sure as well that you were not involved in any financial manipulation whatsoever; then the decision to go back is at your discretion.
However, for the sake of evidence and to counter whatever they might want to use as evidence against you; whenever they write you, make sure you reply. In your response always address whatever allegation that is raised in their mail to you. If you have evidence to back your response, always cite it.
As defense strategy too, tell them you would have love to come and discuss the issue with them face-to-face, but that you are currently out of town. Also assure them in your response that whatever gray area they notice in the accountant record they should feel free to write/mail it to you, that you will respond to it as soon as possible.
With this, you have nothing to be scared of. If however you are bold enough to go and you are sure of your safety, I will recommend that you go. Because, sincerely, it affect business when staff resigns abruptly without arrangement for a replacement. But sometimes the unfavourable for the company may be the inevitable for the staff, so lives still have to continue.
No doubt, your boss might be aggrieved that you fired him, and may want to ‘deal’ with you for that. On a second thought, it is also possible that you are economical with the true situation, in which case you need to go back and clear the account/record.
Always remember “In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn”.
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