ANALYZE THE SITUATION
GERRY HERNANDEZ WORKED AS a breakfast cook at a large day-care facility. His attendance and punctuality were both good. Written into the facility’s employee manual (which all employees sign when they begin their employment) was the following policy: “To be fair to the facility, your fellow employees, and our clients, you must be at your work station regularly and on time.”
Gerry had worked at the facility for 10 months when, one day, he was 15 minutes late for work. While Gerry was aware of the facility work
rule regarding punctuality, Gerry’s supervisor, Pauline Cooper, rarely enforced the rule. Employees who were 5 to 20 minutes late may have been scolded, but no disciplinary action was usually taken, unless, according to Ms. Cooper, the employee was “excessively” tardy. She preferred to, in her words, “cut some slack” to employees, and thus was considered one of the more popular supervisors.
On the day Gerry was late, a variety of problems had occurred in the kitchen. Frozen food deliveries arrived early and no cook was available to put them away; the sanitation inspector arrived for an unannounced inspection, and the rinse agent on the dish machine stopped functioning so dishes had to be washed by hand. Ms. Cooper was very angry, so when Gerry arrived at work, she terminated him, stating, “If you can’t get here on time, I don’t need you here at all!”
The next day, Gerry filed suit against the day-care facility claiming that he was terminated because of his ethnic background. Ms. Cooper and the day-care facility countered that Gerry was an at-will employee, and thus the facility had the right to terminate employees as they see fit, especially when the employee was in violation of a communicated work rule.
1. Does Ms. Cooper have the right, under at-will employment, to terminate Gerry?
2. If Ms. Cooper has no records documenting her actions in cases similar to Gerry’s, is it likely she will be able to help defend her organization against a discrimination charge?
3. How would you advise Ms. Cooper to handle tardy employees in the future?