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Jun05

Can an employer tell a spouse reason for termination?

Termination
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I had an employee who was terminated due to a violation of company policy. The spouse is calling me asking for a reason, can I give her the reason for termination?

This is not a topic that’s covered by federal labor law, or state law in most cases. Here are some issues to keep in mind: Suppose an employee was terminated for having an affair with a subordinate employee. If the employer disclosed this to the spouse, and a divorce followed, theoretically the employer might be liable for damages…even though everything that the spouse was told was true. Some companies have the policy not to disclose HR actions to any third party — and in this case, the spouse is a third party. Other employers would simply tell the spouse that the employee was discharged “for a violation of company policy” without disclosing which one. As tempting as it may be to “get the employee in trouble”, it’s hard to see any advantage for the company in full disclosure.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 7:59 am and is filed under
Termination.
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