Negligence in Employment - Negligent Retention, Supervision, and Training

Negligent Retention, Supervision, and Training

Negligent retention occurs where a party failed to remove an employee from a position of authority or responsibility after it became apparent that the employee was in fact misusing that authority or responsibility in a way that posed a danger to others.

Negligent supervision is closely related, as it occurs where a party fails to reasonably monitor or control the actions of an employee. A variation of negligent retention or supervision is negligent training, which arises where the employer's training of the employee fails to prevent the employee from engaging in the acts that injure the claimant, or fails to remediate a pattern of behaviour which leads to an injury. Suits for negligent retention often plead negligent supervision or training as an alternate theory, as the employer who knows of an employee's improper conduct should either terminate that employee, or take steps to penalise that conduct and/or train the employee not to engage in that conduct.