Employee discipline documentation is your friend when preparing for a layoff.

Documentation of employee discipline is critical when building a list of potential candidates for a lay off. Employee discipline documentation is one of the most important aspect to adding credibility to recommending an “inflexible” or “weak link” employee for a layoff list.

However, it is too often the case that management cannot support its rationale with documented employee discipline. In those instances, the employer's decision about who to include in the lay off can be used by former employees to bolster discrimination allegations. Document your poor performers before considering a layoff.

Fighting costly legal battles can quickly offset savings achieved during a layoff. A June 2008 Supreme Court decision has made lay offs even riskier for employers. In Meacham et al. v. Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, the court determined that an employer must bear the burden of proving the "reasonableness" of factors other than age when a RIF has an adverse impact on workers age 40 and older. Employers who are unversed in the legal pitfalls of a lay off often seek to eliminate their "weakest links," citing non-specific, undocumented and legally weak issues, like "performance" or "lack of flexibility" (two criteria used by the employer in Meacham) as the reasons employees were selected for a layoff.

Modern Business Associates frequently deals with lay off issues. As a HR outsource company, our clients rely on us to help them effectively deal with these kinds of topics including designing plans for lay offs and documenting employee discipline.