A company hires an employee and learns later that he lied on his resume. Is that always cause to fire someone?
Read the facts of this real-life case and decide: Who won?
The facts:
An employee was hired under contract to work for two years and be paid $185,000 each year. The document stated that if he left the company, he’d be paid a year’s salary plus the benefits he would’ve been owed, unless he quit or was fired for cause.
Two female staffers working under him complained about sexual harassment. After a very quick investigation — consisting only of a 15-minute interview with the two women — the company decided to fire the man.
The company gave him a choice: He could take half of his salary as severance or be fired for cause, and lose his pay and benefits.
He chose the severance, but after he was let go, the company learned that he had lied on his resume when he was hired. He left off two previous employers and fudged other employment dates to cover the gaps, apparently to avoid being labeled a “job hopper.”
Therefore, the company figured he was in breach of his contract and wasn’t owed the severance pay. The matter ended up in court.
The employer said:
Lying on a resume was enough cause for termination, regardless of when the discrepancies were discovered.
Who won the case?
Answer: The employee.
Why: The court ruled the employee wasn’t fired for cause — the investigation about the harassment complaints wasn’t sufficient to justify a termination, and the false resume obviously wasn’t a motivating factor, since the company didn’t discover it until after the decision was made.
Therefore, the man was owed $185,000 for his salary plus an amount to cover a year’s worth of benefits.
In the decision, the judge repeatedly noted that the company didn’t bother to check the accuracy of the man’s resume before he was hired. Reference calls were made, but dates were never verified.
If that homework had been done at the right time, the employer could have avoided the whole mess in the first place.
Cite: National Medical Health Card Systems, Inc. v. Fallarino
