Termination Of Employement On A Small Issue, As Small As Copying Of 20% Of One Question Out Of 3 Questions

Can an organization terminate the employement of an associate based on the fact that he copied 20% in one of the questions out of the 3 questions he was given for test. The associates asks for help from his colleague and then edits and formats that 20% also as per his understanding. Is this fair enough to terminate the associate.

Dear friend,
What kind of test was that? Was it recruitment test of any kind or the test of job promotion? What was the subject and how many marks were there? What was the duration of the test? What is the qualification of the employee in question?
We need information on the above and then only comments can be given. By the way, tendency to do some "copy" shows lack of personal values. It goes on to show the audacity of this person.
When persons become obsessed with copying and the tendency to copy something goes into their blood problems of this kind happen. It is a lesson for all the copycats.
Ok...
Dinesh V Divekar

[QUOTE=Dinesh Divekar;2053382]Dear friend,

What kind of test was that?

The test was after the recruitment. The test was to see the ability of the individuals to do data entry.

Was it recruitment test of any kind or the test of job promotion?

Nothing like that.

What was the subject and how many marks were there?

It was a data entry test based on a particular database to see the understanding of the associates.

What was the duration of the test?

8 hours.

What is the qualification of the employee in question?

Graduates and Post graduates with 3 years of experience in the same organization. Have been doing same work but on different databases. Also some freshers were involved.

The copy was not done to pass the test. Even if we remove the copied content, still the associates were passing the test. It was just to get it done in time. One of the associates was also involved in some other work apart from this test and had less time to complete the test also.

Now can you please help me out a to what should be the decision of the organization.

It doesn't matter on any of the following as far as my knowledge goes. This incident would definitely give a strong message to all the others staff.
There is never a small mistake and a big mistake, You can always draw a bigger line besides a line and say that the previous one is smaller and so on..
Let the message pass on that there is zero tolerance to any kind of mistake in the organization.
A person character can be determined only based on the decisions one takes when he is week.
Regards,
Kumar
[QUOTE=Dr. Raj;2053402]

Dear Dr. Raj,

In this case the employee has been terminated because of his personal values. Copying text whether in small amount or big is copying. The management thought not to condone it.

Look at the verdicts of few labour courts. Many times bus conductors have been terminated from their services because of their failure to issue the ticket. For short-duration commutation they just take a small change and pocket it. If caught by the vigilance party, their services are terminated. When these aggrieved conductors approached the labour court, the courts have upheld the punishment given by the management of the respective organisations. Compared to the salary or per day revenue of State Transport Corporation the loss was quite insignificant. But it cannot be condoned.

By the this remind me Spanish Proverb, "Laws, like the spider's web, catch the fly and let the hawk go free"

Why hawk like Vijay Mallaya can roam scot free even after non-payment of salaries to his staffs for the months together but a fly like data entry operator loses his job. This is what the world is!

For Kumar: - Good or bad I did not give my comments without understanding the complete situation. Hence in my previous post, I have asked lot of clarifying questions.

Thanks,

Dinesh V Divekar

Dear Friends,
The fact here is that even the Central Govt Standard orders say that the gravity of the incident and the previous record of the associate should be considered before making a decision. What about the associates who gave 3 and half years to the organization.
This matter was shut down at that time only by saying that there will be a retest for all those individuals but because of the escalation from the client this harsh decision was taken 5 days after the incident happened.
Is this fair enough. The client wanted an action. The action could have been a suspension for a week and a warning letter issued.
Please provide your inputs. This test was in no ways to qualify for anything. In fact there was a chance of retest into that.

Any act involving 'Moral Turpitude' should not be condoned.
Such acts are wilful and intentional; and condoning would amount to encouragement for acts amounting to higher depravity.
However, as pointed out by Mr. Dinesh; if the organization itself indulges in unethical and illegal acts; what can one say about its employees at lower levels.
Warm regards.

Hai friends,
donot mistaking me in answer in this way. In computer tests matching of answer is not copying of answer. Coinciding answer is not copying. Terminating is not reasonable on this issue. Not giving further opportunity or project is justifiable for some short period..

Dear Friends,
In my opinion the action taken was harsh but needed, to pass a strong message across the teams for similar or may be for more critical future verifications in the orgainization.
Regards.
KoRaKu

The vague posting leaves a few more questions... I pose a couple of questions from my point of view ! What will happen if the act of copying is passed over, or ignored ? How senior was the guy or what was his experience. ?? The reason for asking these qustions is... if the Associate is a senior guy and if he is not reprimanded or punished the guy will continue to indulge in this kind of activities in future also. If the word spreads around, others will also emulate the same negative act and would like to be excused or ignored as you have already set a precedence. You are not sure, whether he has been indulging in other immoral and unethical acts in his line of business..

It is better that senior management personnel talk to him face-to-face what prompted him to indulge in this activity and if his answer is not convincing, he can be shown the door. However, without naming the person, it should be brought to the attention of all employees so that they get the message that you mean business and would not like this kind of unethical behaviour.

Best wishes