NO COMMITTEE LEFT - TOTAL RESIGNATION

[Guest LESLEY]

Hi, the entire committee of an Incorporated Society resigned leaving only the paid employee Secretary/Manager. There has since been a member elected Interim Management Committee elected for a specific role. What durisdiction does this IMC have over this employee? ie: can they sack him, make him redundant or does a new committee need to be elected to do this. Can the members at a SGM 'sack' this employee or does this employee have full power until a new committee is elected.

[Josh Martin]

Hi, the entire committee of an Incorporated Society resigned leaving only the paid employee Secretary/Manager. There has since been a member elected Interim Management Committee elected for a specific role. What durisdiction does this IMC have over this employee? ie: can they sack him, make him redundant or does a new committee need to be elected to do this. Can the members at a SGM 'sack' this employee or does this employee have full power until a new committee is elected.

Who appointed the Secretary/Manager in the first place?

[Guest LESLEY]

Who appointed the Secretary/Manager in the first place?

[Guest give liebmann]

Hi, members of a previous committee, not necessarily all of the ones who resigned but a portion of them.

[Larry Cisar]

Hi, members of a previous committee, not necessarily all of the ones who resigned but a portion of them.

What you have is a legal question and you need to consult an attorney to get an adequate answer.

[Kim Goldsworthy]

The entire committee of an Incorporated Society resigned leaving only the paid employee Secretary/Manager.

There has since been a member elected Interim Management Committee elected for a specific role.

Okay.

So you are implying that there is a committee, called "Interim Management Committee", which is now comprised of exactly two members, namely, one paid employee "Secretary/Manager", plus one elected member (who is not a paid employee).

Right?

Why is a "specific role" a factor? - If there had been a member elected for no specific role, would that imply something to alter the relationship between all parties?

Q. What jurisdiction does this IMC have over this employee? i.e., can they sack him, make him redundant or does a new committee need to be elected to do this?

Unknown.

I don't know who empowered your "IMC".

I don't know who created, and appointed, your "IMC".

I don't have access to your bylaws.

I don't have access to the actual wording of the motion which hired/elected this paid employee.

So I can only speak in generalities.

In general:

• Whoever hired the employee can fire the employee.

• Committees are powerless, and cannot hire anyone and cannot fire anyone.

If the organization authorized your "Interim Management Committee" to hire a paid employee, then, given the general rule that committees have no authorization to act unless authorized specifically, then there is a question about whether the organization has or hasn't authorized your committee to likewise to any firing.

Review:

"Whoever hires, fires."

"Committees are powerless except for the powers given to the committee."

This is a conflict of general rules, for you. - You cannot assume the committee which did the hiring is likewise empowered to do any firing, since the two acts are different; it isn't the case of merely rescinding the original adopted motion.

(Analogy: A committee authorized to buy a piano in January is not necessarily empowered to return said piano in February, because the act of undoing the purchase isn't merely rescinding the original motion, but a new motion.)

Since "jurisdiction" is 100% controlled by the original empowering motion adopted by the parent assembly (a board? a general membership?), the default answer is always, "No jurisdiction, except for the jurisdiction granted to the committee."

That means, someone will have to read the minutes, and find out how much authorization this committee has over this paid employee.

Did you empower the committee a little? a lot?

Only you (collectively) know the answer to what you did.

Q. Can the members at a SGM 'sack' this employee or does this employee have full power until a new committee is elected.

Your "or" conjunction is not a logical exclusive 'or', since its connectives are independent.

In general:

• Someone can do the firing.

(Who, is unknown right now.)

• A committee member ("employee") empowered to do X does not lose that power just because the committee shrunk in size.

(There is no relation between one and the other - between (a.) X being empowered to act within the scope of X's power, vs. (b.) the shrinking, expanding, or replacement, of the committee's size or committee's composition.)

Whether is it the members at a "SGM" (special general membership meeting?) who can do the firing, I cannot say for sure, since there are two key missing pieces:

(a.) what the wording of the motion was, originally:

(b.) what your bylaws say about hiring and firing of employees.

Is your committee empowered to do any firing?

By default, "No."

By motion, "Yes, if the motion empowered the committee."

Thus, it is a variable. - Someone must read the minutes, regarding this issue. Someone must read the bylaws regarding this issue.

But, to repeat, you have the generic answers:

• Committee don't hire; committees don't fire; committees are powerless.

• An organization is free to empower a committee.

• An organization is free to discharge (un-empower) a committee.

• As a committee shrinks or expands, that does not change the empowerment of the committee, and does not change the empowerment of any individual within the committee.

[Josh Martin]

Hi, members of a previous committee, not necessarily all of the ones who resigned but a portion of them.

If the Management Committee hired the Manager/Secretary, then from a parliamentary perspective, the Management Committee has the authority to fire the Manager/Secretary.

I find it highly unlikely that this "Interim Management Committee" can assume the authority of the Management Committee, since I doubt that an "Interim" Management Committee is mentioned in your Bylaws, and also because you note that it was appointed for a specific purpose.

Whether the general membership has the authority to fire the Manager/Secretary is a more difficult question and depends on the authority of the Management Committee and the general membership in this regard. I'd take a close look at your Bylaws to see whether the Management Committee has exclusive authority in this area. If so, a Management Committee will need to be elected to fire the employee. If not, the general membership could fire the employee.

My comments refer to the parliamentary nature of the arrangement, and as Mr. Cisar notes, hiring/firing may have legal issues involved, so it may also be wise to consult a lawyer.

You also expressed concern originally that the employee would have "full power" until a Management Committee is elected, which I find unlikely. The employee only has the authority granted to him by the organization's rules.