Terminating somebody’s employment is never pleasant. In fact it is often considered one of the most unpleasant aspects of moving up the corporate ladder. As your career progresses, you will often find yourself in a position where handling layoffs may become part of your job description. Terminations are especially challenging as you need to be both tactful and sympathetic without leaving yourself or your company vulnerable to potential legal ramifications or PR fiascos.
Writing a termination letter for this purpose is as delicate a task as the actual hands on process of letting go of an employee. It is important to incorporate the right words into this letter and if you find yourself unequal to the task, your easiest option is to make use
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Importance of a Termination Letter
Just like a letter of appointment or Employment letter, which operates as a confirmative proof of employment in a specific business capacity; the letter of termination does the exact opposite. It serves as an official Termination of employment and is more for the benefit of the employer than the employee as it protects the company in the event of further litigation.
Check out our free Termination Letter sample in order to understand the kind of formal language and format required in a termination letter. You can use it a basic guideline when you need to construct a termination letter for your own purposes.
Components of a Termination Letter
Your Termination letter must include the following components:
Begin with basic details and identification like the name and rank of the recipient of the letter.
Clearly detail the reasons for termination.
If it is a termination with cause, it must include details of warnings, counselling and disciplinary action taken against the recipient.
If it is a termination without cause, it should ideally offer references and thank the recipient for his services.
It must include details of any company property that must be returned.
The Termination letter should end with details of the recipient’s severance package and include details like severance pay and other benefits.
Uses of a Termination Letter
A termination letter is an important document that
After the manager has discussed with the employee the reason for termination it is important to allow the employee to express his/her feelings. During this time the employee is allowed to say something in his/her defense. Also allows the employee to vent frustration about the termination. This will lessen the likelihood that employee will try some sort of retaliation. Additionally, is there was some misunderstanding on either the manager or the employees part this would be the time to clear it up.
To protect companies for wrongful discharge claims they must do so in a professional and respectful manner. Companies must be sure the employee understand they are being asked to resign and why. For instance, stating the detailed reasons about what the employee did wrong and how long the inappropriate behaviors happened. Insure that the reasons for termination were all in accordance with the supervisory manual made and provided by companies.
The company has the right to terminate an employee as long as the termination does not discriminate or
Wrongful Termination (a.k.a. Wrongful Dismissal) is a legal phrase that refers to any situation in which a worker’s employment is ended by the employer (terminated) in breach of contractual terms of employment, or due to any of the following: discrimination, retaliation, an employee’s refusal to be involved in illegal activity, or an employer’s
In a wrongful termination case, the terminated employee must prove more than having been treated unfairly, s/he must be able to prove one or more of his/her legal rights were violated” (Wrongful Termination Website, 2011). Employees in many states are at a disadvantage, possessing few rights, because of the employment at will rule, meaning employers can fire employees at any time and for no reason at all, just like employees can quit any time and for any reason. This makes the definition of wrongful termination extremely narrow.
Message 4: It is not uncommon for an employee to be in disagreement with an employer’s decision to terminate employment. An alternative we may try is to set up a meeting of the workers peers and give them the facts of the situation and let them decide if the termination was wrongful. The group of peers would be persons from a location other than the employees own. These individuals would hear the facts of the case from both the businesses’ and the employees. In order to qualify the termination would need to meet certain criteria. It would be required to be an established company guideline or process for which the employee was terminated and store leadership must be able to present all documentation that lead to the termination. This would require leadership to have followed the processes leading to termination. For the employee it would let them have a voice in their termination and to hear whether their peers agree with the employer or the employee.
The actual meeting should last about 10 to 15 minutes and have the sole purpose of providing a simple and precise statement of the decision to terminate the employment relationship. During the meeting make sure that there is an adequate reason for the discharge. Many workers sue their ex-employers because they really want a full explanation of why they were let go and a chance to give their side of the story. You should seek out the employee’s explanation or interpretation of events, allow them to vent a little bit without interrupting them. Making it clear that the decision is final is very important also because this way it’s easier to keep your cool and keep control of the situation. Briefly running through the benefits ensures the employee understands his vacation
After the body of a professional letter, the closing will include a signature followed by the sender’s typed name and address.
The issue of retaliatory discharge is common in the labor law area. These claims are made by disgruntled former employees whom feel as if they were in justly terminated from their previous job. However, the power of authority is sometimes abuse by those in their position. If someone’s believes they have been wrongly terminated they must be able to defend their claim with the following minutes of pertinent meeting, any written reports, typed, or handwritten, personal file and other portent information which will defend their claim. Having fellow employees and supervisors and their departmental policies and procedures. An employment disclaimer does not give the employer the right to terminated at will. The California Supreme Court prohibits their
I have called this meeting because it is my duty to let you know that you has been terminated in our company. This means that you are being laid off and Human Resources will work with you to complete your transition. Here is your official Notice of Layoff. As you may know, we have done everything possible to minimize the impact of these changes on our each department, however, we still need to implement some very difficult decisions. I would like you know that this action is not easily taken, and is made after long and careful review of many options.
There are legal protections in place for wrongful discharge and may be classified as arising from grounds of constitutional, statutory or common law regulations. As with all laws, some employees are only protected if employed in the public sector, unionized sector, or those employees who hold individual employment contracts. All things considered, the public policy exception to employment-at-will holds employers liable in tort for wrongful discharge when employees are terminated for taking actions that public policy requires. This type of wrongful discharge claim is recognized in about 40 states and if the courts allow the terminations to stand, it would offend and undermine public policy. In summary, employers cannot legally terminate employees
According to our telephone conversations and the disciplinary action record form according to the annex, we decided to termination of Chu Man Chun’s position without notice or payment of wages in lieu of notice.
Please feel free to contact me with any additional questions you may have regarding this termination.
Assuming that Jeanette termination was warranted, all details should be properly identified and organized before the termination meeting takes place. All the disciplinary reports should be pulled from her employee file and be readily available for review during the meeting. Jeanette is not going to take the firing too well, so the company needs to have documentation to prove why they are choosing to fire her. In Jeanette’s case, the documented records are very important because she has threatened to sue The Daily Register if they terminate her, so the documentation of disciplinary action is needed to show her exactly why she is being let go. “When a termination is not documented with warning or efforts to improve employee performance, a likely
The writing situation that I will face this week is to write a letter to Gold's Gym. The occasion for which I need to write this letter is because I need to cancel my gym membership. As one of the Gold's requirement, I have to submit a valid reason or circumstance on my letter to avoid any feed cost before the term agreed on the contract. The audience, in this case, will be Gold's Gym managers, which usually take control and most of the decisions at the gym. The limitation for this letter is to properly introduce myself and my situation to Gold's Gym managers, in order to justify my excuse.