Captain, Crunch and Associates in Labor Law:

¶ … Captain, Crunch and Associates in Labor Law:

I am the office manager for the Italian Brothers restaurant. We are preparing to dismiss a part-time employee and while we do so reluctantly, we do consider it a necessary measure. We thank you for your consideration of the facts, our position and our request for counsel.

In short, Niko is a part-time employee who worked a variant of hours, had always been reliable and has generally been eager to learn more both as a server and an aspiring chef. A student nearing graduation, Niko had a bad night in which he burnt his hand on hot running water and, subsequently, lost his temper with a customer. Shortly thereafter, rumors emerged that Niko was planning on opening a competing Italian Restaurant nearby. Recognizing that Niko has learned and even written down our establishment's family-developed recipes, we are concerned about his intentions. We consider termination an immediately necessary step to protecting our establishment from the further pilfering of critical trade secrets.

We have conducted some preliminary legal research on our options. As Parpal (2012) advises, "it is important to know your local employment and labor laws to be sure you are not setting foot on illegal ground by dismissing an employee. Check your decisions against Equal Opportunity Employment Laws and any other local employment laws." (Parpal, p. 1)

We have done this and have been able to determine that as a part-time member of our team, Niko served as an at-will employee. As such, we are legally entitled to terminate the employee at any time without giving cause so long as there is no demonstrated trend of employee harassment or wrongful discrimination. Also of particular note regarding the terms of at-will employment, no explanation is required for the termination. Because it would be disingenuous to attribute the termination to Niko's single negative incident on an otherwise unblemished conduct record, and because Niko's intention to open a competing restaurant is mere speculation at this juncture, we presume that the wisest course of legal action would be to provide no explanation at all.

Additionally, we would intend on provide Niko with a modest severance paycheck based on two weeks of projected hours of work, in exchange for his signature on a non-disclosure agreement preventing him from co-opting the recipes that give our restaurant its competitive edge.

With that said, and believing we are within our legal rights, our biggest concern relates to the employee's past track record. First and foremost, the employee in question has no documented history of having been disciplined and, until the event in question, was never a source of conflict. We are concerned that we would be unable to provide a basis for termination owing to a pattern of offenses and that we are likewise unable to demonstrate that we've taken corrective action before resorting to termination.