We own a bar/restaurant. One of our employees is intentionally misrepresenting our business by telling our customers we are out of products as well as falsely telling customers that they can't sell them products because other employees refuse to make the products in an attempt to harm our business. This has cost us business and tarnished our reputation on numerous occasions. If we terminate this employee, will they be eligible for unemployment benefits? Do we have any legal recourse for their actions?
Keep in mind that New York, like nearly every other state, is an "at-will" employment state. That means, unless an employee has a written employment contract providing otherwise, he can be terminated at any time, for any reason (or even no reason at all), and without notice. Also, New York, like most other states, only allows an employee to be eligible for unemployment benefits if the employee is unemployed "through no fault of his own."
In all likelihood, the employee's conduct will be found to constitute job misconduct, which would be grounds to deny unemployment. In order to make that more likely, you should give the employee a formal written warning that what he is doing is unacceptable, and that any further such conduct will result in immediate termination.
It might be a good idea to discuss your situation with a New York employment law attorney, one who is familiar with New York unemployment insurance cases.
Good Luck!
Unless you have an employee manual or policy regrading termination, Wyoming is a right to work, "employment at will" state. You can fire the employee with or without cause. If an employee is terminated without cause, they can file for unemployment. Be sure to have some documentation or other evidence to support the for cause termination in case the employee files anyway. There are other issues involved in your question which should be addressed by an employment law attorney in Wyoming. Use the Find a Lawyer search tool to locate one.
