staff termination

I have a guy that has been with me now for 3.5 months and we use the standard HK lab dept sample contract. His performance has drastically gone downhill and now hinders all our other staff.


For one reason or another his probabtion period elapsed and I had to give him his 30 days notice last week, if I had spoken to him before it would just be 7 days notice. Before he was just useless and lazy, now he's all of that and has a really nasty attitude. Yesterday he spoke back to me and embarrassed me in front of a client.


I looked at the Lab dept. website and we can terminate him on the spot if he/she..


(a) wilfully disobeys a lawful and reasonable order;

(b) misconducts himself;

(c) is guilty of fraud or dishonesty; or

(d) is habitually neglectful in his duties.


Of course I can pay him up to the end of the 30 days and ask him not to come in, but we are a really small company and can't afford that.


I'm worried that if I fire him now without pay for a, b, c and d above whether it will be seen as an excuse to get rid of him without having to pay him his notice.


Anyone have any experience with this?

He will almost certainly go to the labour tribunal for a-d. It costs him only HK$50 to file a claim there, so it is virtually a "zero cost option" for him.

http://www.judiciary.gov.hk/en/crt_services/pphlt/html/labour.htm#5

I've taken the advice and am writing the cheque.

PS. Although it hurts, wish him well when he goes...

Just curious - what made you hire him in the first place? Was he charming and then it became a case of Jekyll and Hyde?

The guy had a good background and to be honest the worst is really simple and should have been easy based upon his experience. For the fiest few months he was slow but still learning the ropes so we gave him a bit of leeway. Then he started to get worse, me and another member of staff just spent every 5 mins checking what he was doing and telling him what to do next. If he finished that 5 min task he would sit down and do nothing. His reply when we asked him why he was doing nothing was "you didn't ask me, you are the boss I do what you tell me". That was his answer to everything, even things he has done dozens of times before.


He made 1 big mistake that cost our company $50,000 and tried to cover it up by blaming the customer and yesterday he confessed that actually he broke it. However he had also been to the labour department and said that we cannot penalise him $50k but a max of $500. The list of other mistakes is very long.


Yesterday after confronting him about his conduct on monday he became argumentative and borderline violent. he would not leave the office. I paid him his salary (incl 30 days notice) his untaken annual leave and he still wasn't happy and refused to leave the office.


Finally he calmed down and left. Well the payment hasn't been presented to the bank so I can only assume he has approached the lab dept. It would appear that he is an expert on the labour laws and obvisouly has prior experience.


Moral of the story is - get rid of someone before their probabtion ends.

Considering the negative attitude and approach to work he displayed fairly early on, I'm surprised you waited this long to give him the chop...

But rest assured the way HK labour laws work - he will not have any chance of coming back at you for unfair dismissal - just look at what happened to the 49 Cathay Pilots who were blindsided with an out of the blue dismissal - no chance of anything in HK. Not that I want to get into a Cathay Pilots discussion here - just using it as an example of what happens in HK. So the laws will work in the employers favour.

No cards and have changed the padlocks, did that when I gave the 30 days. Anyway I think we know why he feels agrieved, my other staff said he kept saying to her that I cannot dismiss him based purely on his monday antics. I think he was confused because at the time he was already fired - the monday antics just made me realise he needs to go ASAP. Hopefully he will understand this or at least had it explained by the lab dept. I gave him 1 letter last week with 30 days notice and another yesterday saying that "because of yesterday's unfortunate incident" he is not required to work again and will be paid in full up to the end of the 30 day notice period.

Tallatte - Even though hes gone, just document everything. all the problems, the attitude, refusing to leave, behaviour everthing. if you gave any warning letters etc.. Its just a precaution. I had a something little less extreme but she was let go and 5 months later I got a letter from the labour tribunal, but I had everthing on hand and all the problems and letters etc... and I did win my case. Just a thought for you anyway just incase. you never know.