Human Resource Blog

Utah Written Warning

If an employee is written up in Utah, do they have to receive a copy of the disciplinary warning?

To avoid “surprise” firings, or to protect a company from liability for jobless benefits, it’s wise to provide warnings and to document those warnings. In the Human Resources profession, that’s called a “best practice.”

Legally, there is no requirement in Utah or in other states to give an employee a copy of a disciplinary warning. But the phrase “written up” by its nature entails a discussion between an employer and an employee, and suggests that the employer has given the worker a written notification. In most cases, employers require the employee to sign the warning acknowledging that the discussion has taken place.

Incidentally, the term “best practice” means that the policy has been adopted by many companies and has in essence become the industry standard.

In reality, the “employment at will” doctrine, applicable in Utah and many other states, allows an employer to fire a worker at any time, for any reason at all, or for no reason whatsoever. No written notice is needed, unless a contract (including a union contract) says otherwise. Workers in turn have the right to quit at any time for any or no reason. Some states, like California, do not follow the employment at will doctrine.

There are several reasons why it is deemed “best practice” to have a policy of documented, written warnings in place.

Consider a worker, “Mary,” who comes in 15 minutes late. She receives no reprimand and no written warning. She assumes now that it is okay to come in late, and does so on several occasions. Suddenly, to her surprise, she’s fired. But if Mary’s employer had a policy in place, she would have received notification that coming in late was inappropriate. The policy would have included a clear explanation of the issue, a proposal for improvement of the behavior, and a description of what will result if the behavior is not changed.

Employers may find that written warnings lessen the chances of facing liability for jobless benefits. If the employer fires a worker for willful misconduct and has documentation showing that the worker received repeated warnings, the likelihood is greater that no unemployment compensation needs to be paid. On the other hand, without documentation in place, a fired worker could be eligible for the benefits, which would raise the company’s premiums.  JH