Administrative Law Memorandum - Essay Sample

Introduction

Issue: Termination of employee services by `Best Seller Technologies, inc' due to unexplained absenteeism.Task: As a legal advisor for `advanced technologies automotive, inc' I have been tasked with the responsibility of determining when an employee can be fired due to absenteeism.

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The Background of the Issue

Background: The Company employees have been making absents without prior notification to the company. Some of them make absents even for three consecutive days without any explanation and switch their phones off only to resurface later and claim that they were unwell. The case is in point is of Christine Whitener who is a black female employee of the company. She has been working with the firm for seven years, from May 2011 on contract basis which is renewed after every two years. All this period she had risen through several ranks because she began her work as a junior clerk, but currently she is the senior supervisor in the sales and marketing department. The company has given her a show cause letter due to her unexplained absenteeism. She has refused to comply with the company by refusing to write a show cause letter. She has threatened to sue the company if she is fired.

Bestseller Technologies which is her employer is an equal opportunity employer. The company hires, offers on the job training and promotes its employees based on merit on all the job cadres. It does not discriminate against sex, color, age or race. When Christine began working with the company, she was earning as a sales executive, she was making $10.06 per hour, and after rising through the ranks, she currently earns $25.06 per hour as a sales and marketing supervisor. The company intends to terminate her services mainly on two grounds. Firstly on November 19th to 21st 2018, she made unexcused absent. Later on 22 November 2018, she brandished her gun and threatened to shot her roommate at the place of work called Brenda Brandon. Since she had previously received two warnings as required by the human resources, she was given three days to explain why she should not be fired ( In Cassese, 2016) On her show-cause letter, she has been told that she violated the company policies by being absent without any explanations. The letter also indicates the previous violations she had made and the warnings she has received are attached to the letter. The other issue is brandishing a gun and threatening to shoot her roommate Brenda. The company has policies on how its employees should behave because they are the image of the company. If the behaviors of the company employees are bad, it will injure the reputation of the company hence affecting its business. Since Christine threatened to shoot her roommate after a short altercation because she was under the influence of alcohol according to the police report, it is a violation of the policy of the organization which stipulates that all its employees even when they are off-duty should behaviors in decorum to portray the good image of the company (Kenkyu, 2016). This violates the Federal laws on the handling of weapons. The federal laws form part of the company laws

Christine has admitted that she was absent on the stated dates and explained that she was unwell. She insisted that she called the sick line on the evening of 18th November 2018 and left a voicemail message. However; there is no factual evidence to support her claim that she made the call. She would not also show the letter from a doctor showing the treatment she got. She argued that she bought over the counter painkillers and used them ( In Farine, 2015). She has not been cooperative, and even the little information obtained from her is after insisting severally that the information is required.

The director of the human resources asserts that even if she had made the call on the said evening, it would not be of any value because there was no live person to receive the call but it would just be recorded. The available facts show that Christine is deceptive and sly that is why she decided to lie to the human resources department that she was sick yet the facts are available that she was arrested because of branding the gun and threatening to shoot a colleague. In all the statements she made to the human resources department about her absenteeism, were lies and mere fabrications. These were the facts considered before the show-cause letter was given to her. The violations are considered amongst the heaviest based on the company's human resources manual. The accused herself is aware of the consequences of such violations because she has worked with the company long enough to understand them (Shepherd, 2011). Besides, all the employees are given copies of the human resources manuals every year.

The absenteeism of the employee caused the company substantial financial losses because she did not report so that the company can make prior arrangements (Kenkyu, 2016). The customers who were to be served by the accused were not served in time because arrangements had not been made to have somebody sit in for her because her job is critical.

Exhausting the Internal Channels

The human resources management and the management team would not assume the matter because she had been warned before and it was not her only deficiency. The situation was worsened through the matter in which the accused tried to cover the matter. One of the company's policies is that all the employees need to exercise the highest level of integrity whichever the circumstances. The excuse given by the accused that she called the sick line as per the director of the human resources and her supervisor was not a sufficient ground because the sick line was not the appropriate way of reporting the absence in such short notice. The appropriate method was for her to call her immediate supervisor and speak to him in person about the absence so that the arrangements could be made on the person to replace her for the days she would not be in. Even the accused she is aware that that is the method that is spelled out (Shepherd, 2011). The decision to give her a show cause letter was not arrived at by an individual but by the management team, her supervisor and the human resources director.

The other issue about the accused is that after the altercation with her roommate and threatening to shoot her, she was arrested though the charges were reduced to a misdemeanor after she voluntarily pleaded guilty to the offense. She was then sentenced to one-year probation. The company is of the opinion that since she has been prosecuted though she received a suspended sentence, it is essential for the company to relieve her of the duties because she might injure the reputation of the company if she continues working for the company. Already, she has caused substantial damage to the firm because the media extensively covered the issue (Ebisui, 2016). The media even visited the premises of the company to get more information about her.

Malicious Allegations

After the show cause letter, the accused has lodged a myriad of complaints against the company because she has realized she violated the code of conduct of the company and she might be sacked. The accused has come up with allegations which claims are the ones she raided, and that is why the company is victimizing her. She claims that since she was employed in 2010, she has been receiving fewer benefits in comparison with other employees doing the same work. She also argues that she has not been getting promotional changes to raise the ladder just because she is of the African-American extraction (Shepherd, 2011). She was fairly promoted as other employees.

The accused also says that she has been receiving fewer travel expenses in comparison with other employees doing the same work as her. She also claims that in the course of her work she is given more workloads because of her sex and race. She, however, does not have evidence to back up her allegations. The company is fully aware that these are counter reactions to try to cover up her mistakes which are against the firm's code of conduct. The evidence in the human resources records shows that the all the African -American employees hired in 2010 under `B-class are paid as the scale of the company and have risen through the ranks as the employees of other extraction. There are even several African-American employees who earn more than the whites. The company, therefore, deems her allegations as a side-show because she is unable to defend herself substantially over the accusations leveled against her. The documents are attached herewith showing the pay scales of all the employees in her department of all races. The document also shows the promotions did for the last seven years and the pay increases which accompany the promotions (Lipsky, 2016). There is no iota of evidence which shows that the company violated the Equal Pay Act because her salary is even her than the average in the state of California.

She, therefore, wants the show-cause letter to be withdrawn immediately and she is allowed to continue with her work without any interference. She says that if the company continues to insist on the show-cause letter which is likely to lead to be termination of the services she will sue the company under the violation of the equal pay Act (Kenkyu, 2016). She will base her arguments the abuse of her constitutional rights because of being discriminated against for not being promoted as other employees of other extractions apart from the African-American. She argues that if her services are terminated, it will not be due to any violations she made but sheer discrimination because of her color and sex. She also asserts that the greater workload she was given made her have fewer breaks than the other workers of other extractions. The also argues that she was not given the educational benefits which were given to other employees of her pay scale as well as other pay scales. In her purported complaints, she also says that she was discriminated against other training and travel expenses offered by the company to its employees (Kenkyu, 2016). Her claims is that she was discriminated on all the aspects.The Company's Position

The Management of the company wants to get a legal opinion on how the issue can be handled administratively. The organization is fully aware that that the allegations raised by the accused against the company are manipulated, but it is the wish of the company to handle the issues administratively because of the issues associated with reputation when a company is taken to court. Ones the company is subjected to legal battles the competitors will seize that opportunity to try and discredit it which might affect the trust that it currently enjoys amongst the customers and the general populace in the country and beyond (Kenkyu, 2016). The organization wants the following legal administrative issues resolved:

• How should the issue of Christine address without any breach of the law?What do the labor laws say about a matter like this?
• Did the company make any breaches on the labor laws and the human resources handbook in giving Christine a show-cause letter which will eventually lead to her services being terminated?
• If the decision the company makes is appealed what should the company do?
• In addition to the law what other factors should be considered in making the decision?
• How can the issues be addressed without leaking outside the company because the company values its reputation and is willing to do anything within the legal means to maintain it.
• Any other issue that the company should know (Lipsky, 2016).
• What the Law States

The issues raised by the accused are significant, and if they are backed up with substantial evidence, they can sustain a charge in the court of law. However, after a thorough analys...