A handbook, a missed deadline, and a firing that came too soon – here's what went wrong
When you set a deadline in writing and then fire someone before it arrives, your own paperwork can undo you. A Hawaiʻi tour company just found that out.
On June 4, 2026, the Supreme Court of Hawaiʻi ruled that Tachibana Enterprises failed to prove that a fired tour guide committed "misconduct" under state law – the legal threshold that allows an employer to block a terminated worker's unemployment benefits.
Tachibana hired Hye Ja Choi in 2016 as a part-time airport guide escorting Japanese-speaking tourists to Waikīkī locations by bus. In late 2019, the company revised its employee handbook and directed all employees to sign an acknowledgment. The stated deadline was January 31, 2020. But the assistant manager responsible for notifying the Japanese-speaking guides did not send the request until February 7, 2020 – after the deadline had already passed. She testified the email went out late because she was so busy at the time.
Choi did not sign. She said she did not understand the handbook's at-will clause – the provision allowing the employer to end the job at any time without cause – and wanted a meeting to have it explained. The handbook itself told employees to ask a supervisor about anything unclear, which is what she did.
On March 16, 2020, Choi received her first written warning, citing her failure to sign the acknowledgment. It gave her until April 14, 2020 to comply and told her,...
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