Employees are often unhappy to be terminated or laid off, although many of them will accept it and move on to look for another job. In some cases, though, employees will contest the termination. They may even threaten to file a wrongful termination lawsuit, claiming that they have been treated unfairly and that their rights have been violated.
As an employer, documentation can be one effective way to help counter these claims. Let us look at two ways that this can be beneficial.
Disciplinary actions
First and foremost, if an employee gets poor performance reviews or has disciplinary action taken against them, it should always be documented. These records can provide justification for the termination. Even if the employee is in a protected class – such as a female employee who is pregnant – you may still be able to fire that person if you can show that there was a valid reason to do so and that the protected class itself was not the reason. A track record of poor performance or conflict with other workers helps to show why you made that decision as an employer.
An equal approach
Documentation is also helpful because it can help to show that you took an equal approach. Maybe you fired multiple employees and only one is going to sue, saying that they were targeted based on their racial background. But if you have documentation showing that you actually terminated five employees at the same time, from a wide variety of racial or ethnic backgrounds, it shows that you were not targeting one specific group.
While planning in advance and documenting everything can help, you may still face wrongful termination claims, which is when it is crucial to understand exactly what legal steps to take.