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An employee can be forced to go on an administrative leave for numerous reasons. Investigating an alleged report of misconduct or to protect sensitive information within the company may be some of the reasons why an employee may be sent on an administrative leave. Policies may vary from company to company with regards to payments during administrative leave. This can lead to uncertainty and questions about an employee’s rights and laws on the matter. Some of the questions on the subject, answered by Experts are summarized below. Q. Can an employee consider working for another company if he or she is on an unpaid administrative leave?
If you are forced to go on administrative leave; it would generally imply that you would not be paid for the leave though you are currently employed with the company. The company would normally keep you informed if the employment has been terminated. It would be wise to verify with the company before you decides not to turn up for work in order to protect yourself from being blamed for leaving the job. Company policies may vary with regards to the duration of the administrative leave without pay. Hence, it would become important to contact the company HR to verify the duration of leave and if they would intimate you or if you should contact them from time to time. However, normally, it does not mean that one cannot look for an alternate interim or regular job. Q. Consider a situation where one has worked for only five weeks and is employed in the state of California. This person has now been placed on administrative leave without pay. What is the duration the company can take to resolve the issue and can the company terminate the employment? To bring the issue to a closure, could the employer summon the employee to answer questions?
In most cases, company policy determines the duration of administrative leave. A couple of weeks should normally be sufficient to complete an investigation. California is an at will employment state where the company can suspend one’s employment without payment and without any investigation. It is not mandatory for the company to summon an employee to answer questions, but it is considered a best practice to do so. It would be part of the “due process” while investigating the matter to summon the employee to answer questions if the employee has a legal right to the job and an employment contract. Q. Consider a situation where the school District’s Personnel Director has sent one person on administrative leave with pay and also handed over a letter. The letter directed the person not to reveal or discuss the issue with any District employee, or any other person so as to protect the integrity of the District’s investigation and to protect the person from any allegations of possible misconduct. How does this person approach the California Labor Commissioner with a claim, meet a lawyer, or work with the union?
The Labor Commissioner can be contacted to file a claim or one can approach a lawyer and the school may not be able to stop one from doing so. This may be a case where it is an effort to stop one from talking to potential witnesses who may be co-workers. One also has the right to be represented by a union, but the union representative may not be used as a witness. Q. As a part of the investigation; one has been put on paid administrative leave as a result of a sexual harassment complaint. The person against whom the complaint was registered was also on paid leave. Due to stress the complainant visited the doctor. However, the employer wants it in writing that sick leave has been availed instead of paid leave until the end of the investigation. Can the employer legally force the employee to be off paid leave?
If the number of people employed is 15 or more in the organization and if you are being treated less favorably than the accused because you brought the incident to light, then your employer may have violated the Federal law. Until the investigation is completed, in all probability you should continue to be on paid leave. You may go to the EEOC and file a complaint should the situation not get better.
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