Can a recently terminated employee be forced to later return for personal items?

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Wisconsin.

If an employer ends an employee's employment, can the employer require the employee to come back after business hours (even if the commute is long) to collect the employee's personal items from the employee's desk vs. taking them right away?

In a nutshell, yes.

What's the problem? If you don't want to go, have them send it UPS COD to you.

OR....

Sign a statement you want them to dispose of your items for you

have your rep pick them up(employee friend)

Personally I take a more aggressive approach and simply call the police and ask them to escort me into the premises to collect my personal possessions. Some police departments will, some won't.

there are a few situations where the employer can still refuse to release your personal property but the police thing generally works.

Member2000 said:

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Wisconsin.

If an employer ends an employee's employment, can the employer require the employee to come back after business hours (even if the commute is long) to collect the employee's personal items from the employee's desk vs. taking them right away?

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FORCE the ex employee? NO!

If notice is given to the ex and they refuse to pick them up, the items are then generally considered abandoned.

BOR said:

FORCE the ex employee? NO!

If notice is given to the ex and they refuse to pick them up, the items are then generally considered abandoned.

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I like justalayman's response. My question is not if the employer can force the employee to take home the employee's personal property, but rather if the employer can decide when the employee can and can not have his personal property.

In a previous layoff situation, I was escorted by company security/HR/manager directly out the door the instant after I was informed of the layoff. When I asked to collect my personal belongings before leaving, I was not given permission by the company to do so and was told to come back after normal business hours. The reason they gave for this was because it creates hard feelings for the other employees to see a coworker get laid off. Being laid off pissed me off and having to make a special trip to get my personal things pissed me off even more.

I'm looking proactively that if it were to happen again in the future, what I could do if the situation occurs again so that I can leave with my items.

The reason they gave for this was because it creates hard feelings for the other employees to see a coworker get laid off.

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they lied to you.

It's so the person being laid off won't cause any problems. A lot of times, especially when the now ex-employee is PO'd, they will say things to others in an effort to incite them into some action against the company or just be disorderly in general. I do understand the justification for the action; I just don't like it. If you worked there for however long it was and didn't cause problems, I think that should be taken into account and allow an employee that has been a good employee to take their personal items with them.