Employee Fraud Incident: Should We Terminate or Give Another Chance?

Dear All,

Please help me. One of our employees misused cash and committed fraud by purchasing some items locally last month. Management issued a final warning letter at that time.

Currently, our factory manager has changed, and he is aware of the aforementioned incident. He has recommended terminating the employee's services. Please provide the letter of termination promptly.

Raju

Dear Raju,

Once you have decided to issue him a final warning letter, how will you now terminate him? Punishing him twice for one offense seems unfair. You cannot terminate someone's services without giving them the opportunity to explain themselves, as per the principles of natural justice. If things progress to court, only then will the management understand the law. It is important to follow the law of the land when terminating.

Thank you.

J.S. Malik

You cannot terminate an employee like this. Firstly, if you feel an employee has done something wrong, you need to issue him a show cause notice. If you are not satisfied with the reply, you need to conduct a proper inquiry by forming a bench to look into the case. The findings of the bench inquiry would lead to the termination of services, stating that the employee was found guilty of the offense. As per the company manual clause, the services are hereby terminated with immediate effect.

In this case, since you have already given the employee a final warning and no inquiry has been conducted, you cannot terminate his service at your own discretion after a certain period of time. It is illegal, and the employee can prove in the labor court that initially, he was only given a warning and now the company has taken action for the same case which was resolved some time back.

Dear Raju,

It is our function to ensure that both the employee does not misuse the organization and the organization does not misuse the employee. Once the organization has already participated in a disciplinary action, that same event cannot be used by a later or newer executive as a source of prejudice against the employee. You would need to advise the manager in this manner.