My husband is not a thief...

[Wednezday]

My husband worked in Washingon state for a large national firm for 6 1/2 years. He was required to travel and submit reimbursement requests for personal money spent on his work travel.

Several weeks ago, my husband submitted several expense reports and was told by another employee that they had been "red-flagged"; no one told him why or discussed any specific issues with him. Then this week, with out any notice, my husband was fired for "submitting falsified expense reports". While it is true that there were several errors on the expense reports, including inadvertent double-charges of minor expenses, they were made strictly in error. An example of double charges: on one occaision, my husband submitted a room service reciept and also submitted the hotel bill which, without realizing it, also included the same room service charge. The majority of the errors involved placement of valid business expenses in to improper expense catagories such as occaisionally placing entertainment expenses under dinner expenses when more than one estabilishment was frequented in an evening.

At the time my husband was fired, he was handed a memo stating some general problems with the expense reports. He was not provided with any specifics or copies of the reports with the items in question. He was easiliy able to explain most of the discrepencies on the meme and requested the opportunity to discuss the remaining items with someone with the specific expense reports present. He was not allowed that opportunity.

To date, no one has explained why the discrepancies were not discussed with my husband prior to his being fired. The reports were supposedly checked and/or audited by several people, but not one person asked my husband about the mistakes or gave him the chance to explain or correct them. At the time he was fired, my husband was told that if someone had taken the time to discuss the items with him prior to passing the reports along, he might not have been fired... but since they were passed along and "perception" was formed by some that he was stealing from the company, the decision to fire him stands.

Can my husband's company fire him for geniune errors (not attempts to steal company money as accused) on expense report without allowing him to provide an explantion? I don't understand why, if several people were reviewing the reports and were aware of the errors, they kept it from him and did not allow him the opportunity to explain. Can anyone make sense of this?

Was my husband wrongfully terminated? We can easily provide materials showing, except in the case of minor erroenous double charges, that all expenses submitted were legitimate work-related expenses. Also, to date we have not recieved a check for the expenses either which amounts to several thousand dollars on our personal credit card.

What should I do? Thanks for any help.

Wednezday

 

[cbg]

Suspicion of theft, even if mistaken, is a legitimate grounds for termination. They do not have to have the same level of proof that would be required in a court of law. A reasonable suspicion is sufficient.

Although it would have been nice for them to have allowed him a chance to explain the mistakes, it's not necessarily required. They would have no way of knowing whether it really was a genuine mistake or whether he was backtracking after getting caught.

 

[Beth3]

Agree with cbg. Your husband may be terminated on suspicion of theft, and a pattern of turning in suspect expense reports with double-billings and errors in his favor provided the employer with ample cause to discharge him.

It's unfortunate they did not speak to him the first time errors showed up on his expense report so he had a chance to correct things but they were not obligated to do so. The obligation that existed was actually with your husband, which was to turn in a correct expense report, free of errors or to ask for clarification if he was uncertain how the report should be filled out.

By the way, anyone who has ever ordered room service and signed the bill when the meal arrives knows that expense always goes directly on the room charge. I can understand why your husband's employer drew the conclusion they did.

 

[dankk]

and by making this kind of "mistake" the employer realized that your hubby is

"not the sharpest tool in the shed"

So there is another reason to let him go!


PS.......he didnt have a company credit card?

Thats a NO NO........next time it will be billed to the company's credit card ( OR HE DOESNT TAKE THE JOB!!!)then the company could have called the hotel and had the charges taken off and hubby would not have been fired!

 

[Wednezday]

Thanks for the feedback

Thanks for the feedback. I didn't realize that suspicion of theft without actual evidence was ample cause for termination. That clarifies things a lot.

Dankk, I see your point about how this could cause the company to question my husband's abilities in other areas as well. I assure you that my husband is no idiot, but see your point nonetheless.

Regarding a couple of the posts above:

I agree that everyone does know that a room service bill does end up on the hotel total. My husband was travelling up to 60% of the time, so there were a huge number of reciepts to organize each week. Plus, he was required to purchase supplies and equipment and incentives for the company, resulting in even more of an accounting nightmare. His travel expenses were on the order of $5,000 per month. Misallocating a room service charge was a simple oversight in a huge expense report. I'm not trying to justify the error - just attempting to give broader context to the issue.

Unfortunately, the company did not offer company credit cards and required using a personal credit card or getting a cash advance; but they made getting the cash advance so incredibly difficult that it wasn't worth it (not to mention, it wouldn't have covered a business trip anyway). For the first 6 years of his employment my husband was a manager and the expense reports were manageable. But, back in December, my husband recieved an executive-level promotion; that's when his travel and business expenses increased by an order of magnitiude - from about $500 per month to about $5000 per month (much of this for air travel).


Having talked to several business associates over the past couple of days (my husband and I work in the same industry), I heard that my husbands former company is "cleaning house" to make themselves look more attractive to a potential purchaser. Several of my associates have been contacted from people who were also let go from my husband's company lately. My husband was on the lowest rung of executive management - the first level to be "downsized" in just about any business about to undergo big changes. I am thinking that by finding a legitimate way to fire him rather than lay him off, they could avoid dealing with severance, unemployment, and COBRA benefits. That might explain why the errors were not discussed with him and he was given not opportunity to correct them.

Thanks again - Wednezday

 

[Beth3]

Even if the expense report issue came up at a handy time for the employer, that still doesn't make it a wrongful termination.

Now whether the employer was still obligated to offer COBRA is arguable. COBRA reg's to not define "gross misconduct," which is the allowable reason for an employer not to offer continuation. The courts have defined gross misconduct very narrowly when it comes to COBRA continuation. Many HR people use the rule of thumb that if the employee is terminated for something for which they can be criminally prosecuted, then they need not offer COBRA.

There isn't enough detailed information about your husband's term to know whether it falls into that category or not. The COBRA issue appears to be the only one you could pursue legally if you wish to.

 

[Wednezday]

Thanks Beth.

I didn't mean to make it sound like I still thought this might be wrongful termination. After reading the posts above, it is pretty clear to me that it wasn't. I still feel that it was unfair, but I guess that is really a moot issue at this point. *If* this is actually a case where it was more convenient to fire my husband than lay him off, I realize that there is really nothing we can do about it.

We are looking into unemployment benefits right now because in my state you can still be eligible if you were fired, depending on the circumstances. I have a feeling we won't fare well.

To date, we don't know if my husband will be offered COBRA benefits or not - that is all in to come in a packet we are to recieve by mail next week. If the COBRA benefits are not offered, I am glad to know that we may have some grounds to fight the decision.

I don't think my husband can be procecuted for anything such as theft. He did not recieve payment for the erronious charges, as they were identified by accountants before the expense reports were paid and not included on any checks recieved by him for reimbursement. The reason for termination was that he was accused of "submitting false information". Hopefully, that won't qualify as "gross misconduct".

**Guess what? I just found out from someone at my husband's former company that a portion of the company actually sold this morning. (My husband was let go three days ago.) Interesting coincidence.

Thanks again,
-Wednezday