Personnel Management, Discipline, and Labor/Employment Issues
This section covers personnel management, discipline, and labor/employment issues. The exam tests whether you can impose discipline that survives review, respect employee rights, and separate administrative from criminal processes.
Core rules and concepts
- Just cause generally requires a reasonable rule, notice, investigation, proof, equal treatment, and a penalty proportionate to the offense.
- Progressive discipline uses counseling, reprimand, suspension, demotion, or termination as warranted; some misconduct is serious enough for immediate termination.
- Loudermill due process for a public employee facing termination requires notice of charges, an explanation of the evidence, and an opportunity to respond before the decision.
- Weingarten gives a unionized employee a right to request representation in an investigatory interview the employee reasonably believes may lead to discipline. It is not a right to have a representative answer questions.
- Garrity: statements compelled from a public employee under threat of termination cannot be used in a later criminal prosecution. They may be used administratively.
Worked example
A captain orders an officer to answer internal-affairs questions or be fired. The officer answers. The district attorney later wants the statement. Reasoning: the statement was compelled, so it carries use immunity in the criminal case. The captain should keep the administrative and criminal investigations separate, document the Garrity warning, and consult counsel before sharing statements.
Traps that cost marks
Using Garrity as a substitute for Miranda; denying a timely union-representation request; disciplining without documentation; and treating similar offenses unequally.