Labor & Employment Law

Termination during probation

By Harvey Randall, Esq.

Termination during probation
Stretz v Bloom, App. Div., 2nd Dept., 286 A.D.2d 337

Newburgh probationary police officer Kenneth Stretz was terminated from his position. The Appellate Division, Second Department, rejected his appeal from a lower court's dismissal of his petition seeking reinstatement.

First, the Appellate Division pointed out that the employment of a probationary employee could be terminated without a hearing and without a statement of reasons provided that the termination was not made in bad faith, in violation of statutory or decisional law, or for unconstitutional or illegal reasons.

Note: Case law indicates that a probationary employee in the classified service may be dismissed without notice or hearing at any time prior to completing his or her maximum period of probation once the individual has completed his or her minimum period of probation. If the appointing authority wishes to dismiss a probationary employee in the classified service before he or she has completed his or her minimum probationary period, the employee is entitled to a Civil Service Law Section 75 pre-termination disciplinary hearing.

Further, said the court, the employee challenging his or her probationary termination has the burden of establishing bad faith or illegal reasons by competent evidence. Finding that Stretz "failed to sustain that burden," the court affirmed the Supreme Court's dismissal of Stretz's petition.

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on March 13, 2008 (boomark / email).