Human Resource Blog

Employee Misuse of Work Telelphone

We had an employee of two years who misused the office telephone. She placed $4,150.00 on the phone. When questioned about the charges she denied making them or having any knowledge about the calls. It was on record that the she had called the telephone company a month before the statement came out and tried to dispute the charges. The next day she returned to work and said her daughter made the calls from home, she also said she would be responsible for them. The telephone company stated the phone calls were made directly from the telephone in the office. We terminated her based on her being dishonest and trying to defraud the company. The employee wants severance pay which it states in the contract that she would receive if terminated. If an employee has committed fraud are we still responsible for payment under the California State Labor Law?

We agree that terminating this employee was the right thing to do. You need to consult an attorney about the specific wording of your employee contract. Hopefully, it is worded so that if an employee is termianted for misconduct, you are no longer responsible for paying severance. However, we cannot render an opinion on that without reading your specific agreement with this employee.

For future reference, it is always a good idea for an employer to put a provision in the agreement that the employer is not responsible for paying severance when an employee is terminated for misconduct.