Legal Question in Employment Law in Massachusetts

Re: rights of the employer

Mass is an employment-at-will state, Barring a termination for reasons such as gender, race, religion and the like, and barring any agreement regarding disciplinary procedures, you can fire for any reason.

If an employee poses a risk of harm to your business or customers, this would effect your insurance - if you kept her on.

If you believe she is a time bomb, lay her off.

Re: rights of the employer

Generally you can fire an employee for any reason, no reason at all and no notice is required. If you fire someone "without cause" they are eligible for unemployment compensation. However, drinking on the job is grounds for terminations and disqualification from unemployment. You do not say if alcohol/drug abuse is interfering with her ability to do her job well or is leading to poor customer relations. If you have more than 5 employees, you are subject to the anti-discrimiantion law. To protect yourself from suit, you could give her a written warning about her performance problems and her drinking, remind her that you have discussed this before and given her a second chance, offer her an opportunity to get treatment and tell her if there is no improvement in her work or if she drinks on the job or reports to work impaired, she will be fired. Nothing will prevent a person from suing you. But forearmed is better than nothing.