How can we keep a bum employee from drawing unemployment on us? read for details please!?

Question

we hired this guy a year ago at our transmission shop. He was pretty bad about missing work/coming in late, etc until he got on our company health insurance (6 month waiting period) and then he just went crazy. I've checked and at no point in the last 6 months have I written him a full paycheck b/c he is constantly coming up with something that he has to go get painkillers for. We have major reason to believe he is a pill popper and he has asked other employees if they know where he can get drugs. He also never goes to the same doctor. He has missed work CONSTANTLY, but always brought dr notes.

He came in about 2 weeks ago with his arm in a sling thinkin he could actually work and draw a paycheck. Since this is a safety hazard to both him and our other employees, my owner sent him home and told him to come back when he had a dr's release on it, & not before.

Now he has applied for Mississippi unemployement saying leave of absence. yes, we made him take it. Is their anything

we can do to prevent him from gettin it considering these circumstances? We are a small company who is very good to the employess who are good honest workers and don't want to see our rates go up due to this bum.

Should we just go ahead and let him go and save ourselves at least paying for his uniforms/health insurance? I'm sure all his claims are gonna make our health insurance rates skyrocket at renewal time, at least maybe if we fired him we could save that even if we do have to give him his unemployment! whats legal here? What's the best way to handle this? Thanks!

Answer 1

Ack, I hate when that happened here.
If you suspect the employee of working while intoxicated (illicit narcotics or alcohol), I suggest you have the employee report immediately to a drug screening lab for a urinalysis. Usually you will get the results within a day. If they test positive, you can terminate their employment immediately.
If you can show documentation that he has approached other employees for illicit drugs, you may be able to terminate their employment for "substanse abuse".
You can layoff the worker with the reason "services no longer required". But this will probably still allow the employee to draw unemployment.

Your best bet is to cut your ties with this problem employee as soon as possible.

Answer 2

Good luck.
Those a******* usually take it out of the employer's hands.
I let a guy go for arriving to work drunk, (operating a tow lift).
Couldn't stop the unemployment compensation. TX.
Same with Workman's Comp. Couldn't stop that either with fake injury, fake docs, and fake atty., to the tune of 40K.