Is it possible to fire incompetent ethnic minority person who plays the race card?

Question

or is it more cost effective to suffer the incompetence. I know most ethnic minorities are brilliant at the jobs I am talking about those who are lazy and can threaten to evoke complex racial discremeniation procedures to avoid working in their jobs.

Answer 1

Before you fire ANYONE for incompetence you need to make sure you carefully document their incompetence. You need to document all counseling sessions, and be able to prove that you gave them every opportunity to bring their performance up to standards. You need to make sure that you are applying the same standards to everyone.

Then if an incompetent employee alleges that you fired him/her due to race, you can prove the real reason.

Answer 2

If you can 100% prove the incompetence, and even the threats to play the race card - which I would regard as blackmail - which is an offence in itself, then I would seek legal advice from a lawyer who deals with employment matters.

But, really, really make sure you CANNOT lose. Ensure that all dealings with this person about their lack of competence are fully recorded. That the person gets a written copy of all matters discussed. That they are given a reasonable improvement plan and timescale to improve If necessary, offer them extra training courses if this is feasible. That at any disciplinary proceedings they can have a friend or colleague present - by the same token, I don't see why you should not have an impartial witness present too. Perhaps you can even tape record any proceedings. But ensure that the person knows this - these are just some of my thoughts and ideas to help you - DEFINITELY seek further specialist advice.

And the employee should be ashamed of themselves. They are letting all other ethnic minorities down who are genuinely discriminated against. Perhaps this fact should be pointed out to them in the hope they will do the decent thing.

Answer 3

You've been given some sound advice by people answering your question. Documentation and records of warning are the key to your success. If you have good, valid reasons to fire a person, you should stand a good chance. Are you employing other ethnic minority people in your company who are hardworking and rewarded for their performance? If so, they are the best testimony to prove that you are not treating that incompetent person unfairly. People from ethnic minority background want their hard work and contribution recognized. They don't have sympathy for any bad apple that causes damage to their image. If you have been fair, you would gain the support from other conscientious ethnic minority employees.

Answer 4

Visit your advocate & come up with a monitoring schedle. These are tried & trusted documents which record all the steps necessary to boot someone out.

In essence you start off with a formal interview where you put your concerns to them & listen to their replies. This is all recorded on paper & both parties agree it by signing it. I strongly suggest that you allow them to have a 'friend' (eg Union rep) with them . If they choose not to record it.

Another interview is held where you tell them what is expected of them & the steps you consider necessary to achieve them. You get their feedback & record / agree as before.

You then monitor all work & evaluate it. Even the minor stuff.

As you evaluate you again meet to discuss / review with them.

You issue a letter stating your concerns & giving full examples (ignore minor **** ups, it makes you appear like a bully if it goes to Tribunal) & suggesting a timescale to get the employee working satisfactorily.

Ensure that you are treating this employee no less favourably than your others.

After maybe 6 weeks where you have offered instances of their incapability & given advice etc into how to remedy these weaknesses. You should have a final interview with them where you give them notice.

Make sure that you use direct & simple English. Failing to do this may lead to confusion. The first time I had to dismiss someone I said how sorry I was that I had to let them go. They turned up the following day & said it was alright they'd work for nothing until I could afford to pay them again!

Answer 5

Yes, it is possible to dismiss anyone provided it is not on the grounds of race colour or creed. This would be contrary to the Race Discrimination Act.

All employees must obey the lawful orders of their employer, failure to do this is a breach of the implied terms of the contract of employment at common law.

If you follow the necessary procedures and reasonable attempts to address and resolve any issues have not been successful then there is no problem.

This individual is just trying to be clever. He obviously does not know anything about employment law, and even less about discrimination law. Provided you are treating him/her the same as you treat all your other employees, ethnic or otherwise then he/she is subject to the same censurship as everyone else.

Do not suffer the incompetence, the reputation of your business is at stake and everyones job is at stake.

The minimum disciplinary procedure is:

ACAS Code of Practice 1 (Revised 2000) Disciplinary and grievance procedures. An employment tribunal will accept this as you having taken reasonable steps to resolve the issue.

Talk to your solicitor.

Good luck.

Answer 6

Be DAMN careful my friend!! They (you know who I mean) know all about this little chestnut and play it for all they are worth. What you really need to do is document EVERY little thing that he/she does wrong but its not that simple! You first have to prove that they did know how to do it in the first place but then did it wrong anyway. What you have to do is write down (idiot style) their duties, responsibilities and imprtantly how they SHOULD do the job that they are paid to do, get them to sign this saying at the bottom of the sheet:
"I have read and understand my duties as written and initialed by myself on this letter".
Have this letter witnessed, give them a copy, keep a copy for yourself (and hide a copy too). You MUST do this for all members of staff and its a good idea too to tell them in advance saying in a "public" letter (ie; on a staff notice board) that it is part of a staff training & improvement drive. When writing down the duties etc make it as specific as possible so that when the incompetant **** cocks up he/she cant say "I didnt understand what it meant" you have to cover your **** big time mate and I cant overemphasise this point too much. If needs be get a none ethnic person to one side (who does the same job as the ethnic) and tell them that you are going to be "hard" on them too so that the ethnic cannot say that they are being singled out.
Please do this though because this fuc*ing ridiculous situation cannot continue and alls that we have to do is use our brains a little. Lets stamp out this nonesense!

Answer 7

You don't need an excuse to fire an employee. All the documentation of performance issues is a good thing to have in case the employee comes back on you for wrongful termination. Then the documentation comes in handy in a legal sense. I found the site below for help in such issues.
Good luck

Answer 8

There are bad apples in any race. If you have one and he/she dangles the racist crap in front of you you need to do a few things.
First document anything that he doesn't do, when he comes to work, how often he calls in sick, anything pertaining to his job. Tell this person that you've documented it and put it in his file, Also have a witness present.
Give him a verbal warning, document it and have him sign it,
Another warning written, document signed again by both of you
And another one and explain that this is the last warning, the next one will be a dismissal. Sign everything, have him sign and have a witness.You need to do that not only for the f...g lawyer he might get, but also you need to get rid of him for the morale of the business.
Good Luck

Answer 9

Depends...if you are from PC Britain, you are on to a loser mate, you may as well take your trousers down and let the guy smack your backside, as tribunals live in fear of race issues.
My brother had a clear cut case for dismissing a black guy with a chip on his shoulder, he did so, the guy raised a race issue at a tribunal and was awarded £2.5k compensation.
The guy later asked for his job back
Grey area mate, but be on your game with as much documented evidence as you can get

Answer 10

Don't you just hate political correctness and the deal of the race card? Which i believe is the lowest card of the deck!

People have to lose this stupid mentality that everything they do and don't do is due to the factor of their skin colour. Im asian and i wouldnt sue ne body if they fired me caus im a thinking person. America has to lose this mentality! Yeh fire em! Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency! (Words of an asian).