The case of Vladimirksy v. School District of Philadelphia, recently issued by the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, is an important reminder that when it comes to employment terminations and discipline, process and procedure sometimes matter even more than what you are terminating the employee for.
In Vladimirksy, a school district attempted to fire a teacher for an incident in which the teacher was investigating whether one of his students had thrown books out a classroom window and while speaking to his class became “extremely agitated” and “shouted” at the students about the books, including yelling obscenities.
One of the students videotaped this incident on a cell phone and when the teacher saw this, “aggressively approached a student holding a cellphone and grabbed the student’s arm in an attempt to take the phone” and “the student resisted,” causing the teacher to lose his balance and fall on the student. The district sought to terminate the teacher’s employment, but failed to follow a number of critical provisions of the School Code in doing so.
The Court, while clearly concerned by the teacher’s conduct, stated it would “resist the urge to permit bad facts to make bad law” and reversed the termination on the basis that the required procedures were not followed. Further the Court ordered the employed back to work and awarded back pay.
While this case involved a public employer, it is instructive for private employers as well, in that even if you have a good reason to fire an employee, you still need to make sure that you follow the correct process for doing so, whether that process is created by statute, collective bargaining agreement, or contract.
In addition, private employers should be sure to document the correct steps along the way and should consider reviewing their steps with counsel. Failure to do so could result in a reversal of the firing and possible back pay not because the employer had an improper reason to terminate, but simply because they did so the wrong way.
The Eastern Pennsylvania Employment Log (EPELog) is a publication of the KingSpry Employment Law Practice Group. Jeffrey T. Tucker, Esquire, is our editor-in-chief. EPELog is meant to be informational and does not constitute legal advice.
