Free restaurant template · Form
Restaurant termination letter and separation checklist
Free to use and edit. These are starting drafts, not legal advice: have an employment attorney review any policy before you rely on it.
The template
[Restaurant name]
Separation Letter and Checklist
Part 1: Separation letter
Date:
Employee name:
Position:
This letter confirms that your employment with [Restaurant name] ends on [last day worked].
Your final pay is enclosed. It includes your wages through your last day, [__] hours of earned and unused vacation, and tips or service charges owed to you through your last shift.
Enclosed with this letter is the Department of Unemployment Assistance pamphlet "How to Apply for Unemployment Insurance Benefits", with our employer details written on it.
Please return the following by [date]: [keys, uniform items owned by the restaurant, other property]. Information about any benefits you hold will follow from the plan provider.
If you have questions about your final pay or records, contact [name, phone or email].
For the restaurant:Date:
Part 2: Separation checklist (for the manager)
Employee:
Last day worked:
Reason: quit / let go / laid off / end of season:
Completed by:
- Decision reviewed by owner or second manager
- Recent write-ups and reviews in the file read before the decision
- Final hours confirmed from the time clock, edits documented
- Earned, unused vacation hours calculated
- Tips and service charges owed through the last shift calculated
- Final pay requested from payroll and ready on the due date
- Unemployment pamphlet prepared with employer FEIN and mailing address
- Letter and final pay given to employee (date and how)
- Keys, cards and restaurant property returned
- POS, scheduling app, alarm and door codes removed
- Removed from the tip pool sheet and the schedule
- Benefits provider notified, if any
- Separation sent to payroll with the last day and reason
- Copies placed in the personnel file
Starting draft from Back of House Ops (backhousehr.com). Edit it to fit your restaurant. It is not legal advice.
Massachusetts rules
The rules that apply to this document
When is the final paycheck due in Massachusetts?
If you fire or lay someone off, you pay them in full on their last day. If they quit, you pay them in full on the next regular payday. An employee cannot agree to waive these deadlines.
Full answer and official sourceDo we have to pay out unused vacation when someone leaves?
Yes. Once you offer vacation, earned and unused vacation counts as wages and goes in the final paycheck on the same deadline, whether the employee quit or was fired, with or without cause.
Full answer and official sourceWhat about tips owed to someone who is leaving?
Tips and service charges are due at the end of the day they were received, and the Attorney General treats them as on time if paid by the end of the pay period in which they were earned. Settle any tips owed with the final pay.
Full answer and official sourceWhat do we have to give an employee about unemployment when they leave?
Within 30 days of any separation, temporary or permanent, give the employee the Department of Unemployment Assistance pamphlet "How to Apply for Unemployment Insurance Benefits" (Form 0590A), with your FEIN and mailing address written on it.
Full answer and official sourceWhat happens if a final paycheck is late?
An employee who sues and wins is automatically awarded three times the late or unpaid wages, plus attorney's fees and costs. The court cannot lower it, and paying after the complaint is filed is no defense to the Attorney General's complaint.
Full answer and official source
Rules checked against official sources on . General information, not legal or tax advice.
Where restaurants go wrong
- Letting someone go at the end of a shift and telling them the check will come on Friday. For a discharge, it is due that day.
- Leaving earned vacation out of the final check, or holding the check until a uniform comes back.
- Forgetting the unemployment pamphlet because the employee quit. It is required for every separation.
- Writing a long letter that lists every grievance. Facts belong in the file; the letter confirms the date and what is enclosed.
Your restaurant remains the employer of record and approves payroll and employment decisions. BOHO is not a PEO, a staffing agency, or legal counsel. This template is a starting draft for you to edit. It does not decide how the rules apply to your restaurant, so have counsel review any policy or separation before you rely on it.
Want the numbers behind it? Try the restaurant calculators.
Rather have someone keep these documents current?
Your restaurant remains the employer of record and approves payroll and employment decisions. BOHO is not a PEO, a staffing agency, or legal counsel.