Terminating the Employment Relationship

Citation to the rules, regulations, collective bargaining agreement provisions and/or statutes that have been violated (consider quoting them verbatim in the Notice of Intent); A detailed description of the factual bases for findings of violations of rules, regulations, collective bargaining agreement provisions and statutes; Where appropriate, a statement that the violation of any one of the rules, regulations or policies, or commission of the factual acts of misconduct, would in and of itself support the termination;

A statement of the effective date of termination;

A description of the impact the employee’s personnel history has on issues of credibility and penalty (whether positive or negative); If witnesses were interviewed, a statement that the employee is prohibited from retaliating against witnesses;

The date and time for the Skelly conference;

A statement that the employee’s personnel file was relied on, and that the employee may inspect their personnel file upon reasonable request to the Human Resources or Personnel Department; A statement that copies of all materials that were relied upon to support the proposed discipline are attached (and attach them); A description of the employee’s right to respond in writing and/or orally to the proposed discipline; A statement advising the employee that if the employee does not provide a written response and/or request a Skelly meeting by a certain date, then failure to do so will constitute a waiver of the right to respond; and A statement advising the employee that the employee has the right to be represented by a representative of their choice at the Skelly meeting.

The Skelly notice should list and include as exhibits all of the materials the agency relied upon in making its recommendation for the proposed discipline, as well as the documents being provided to the employee. Liebert Cassidy Whitmore recommends that an employer provide an employee subject to discipline with copies of all materials that the employer relied upon. 18

LCW Practice Advisor

b. A Reasonable Time to Respond There is no law that specifies how much time an employee must be given to exercise their right to respond to a Notice of Intent. Time to respond is generally fixed by management in the agency’s personnel rules (or perhaps an MOU provision). Under norm al circumstances, the

Terminating the Employment Relationship ©2022 (s) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 19