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Retired now (Thank GOD), been there done that.
Workers Compensation lawsuits as a result of their own incompetence or negligence, stealing both materials and time from the company, poor to physically dangerous craftsmanship (or lack thereof), deliberate sabotage of jobs they don't want to do.
Tried to fire an incompetent, lazy, lying, thieving, member of the WorkersComp Mafia once.
Unfortunately, I hired the weasel to begin with; based on the reports from Human Resources and outside interviewers.
First time I had the documentation to can him, the company backed down telling me “he would turn over a new leaf” and I should give him another chance.
Second time, I had him cold on theft of company property and sabotaging a pretty expensive job because he didn't want to do it.
The company chickened out saying he had a lawyer and would sue us, I told the company “he's going to do that anyway, just a matter of time”.
Third time was the charm. I had complete documentation, wittnesses to the incident, and a detective's film footage of the incident.
He called in sick on a monday morning, I said fine; I immediately called the company's insurance carrier and told them to get one of their detectives out to what I found out was a side job he was working.
He fell off the second story he was framing onto an existing house, the detective got it on film.
He came back into work on wednesday (limping, guess he thought I wouldn't see him), he called into the office about 10:30 am claiming he had a bad fall on the job.
I made sure I went down to the hospital right then to fill out the Accident Report Form, the Industrial Accident/Injury Report Forms, and the Workers Compensation Claims Forms.
Of course there were no witnesses to his “on the job accident”, it was just his word on what happened.
Dumb ass forgot that I controlled all of his work orders, toughest job he had that day was to hang a single 34”X72” door.
Talked to the insurance investigator as soon as I got back to the office; he told me to just wait until the rat filed the Claims Forms for for damages.
The scumbag did and we went to court, he was suing for a 130,000 K and all medical expenses.
I am not sure if that bastard is still in prison for attempt to defraud the State of California, but I sure hope so.
It took 6 years of close documentation on the quality and quantity of work he did (or failed to do).
27 lost time (so called) accidents paid for by the taxpayers.
Probably a couple of thousand man hours (off the clock, not paid) on my part to investigate and document his failure to perform his contractual duties.
Have no idea how much our insurance carrier spent to assist me in getting rid of the employee from hell, probably a lot.
So to any body who does not think proper vetting, drug and alcohol testing are not important, I have only this to say.
YOU ARE NIEVE AND STUPID, YOU WILL INHERIT THE EMPLOYEE FROM HELL.