I have a female employee who is not management. Been in this small business for 2.5 yrs. During her time here she has had her husband threaten a manager and use racial slurs towards a manager. She is has used company property without permission. She has fraudulently put times on her time card that were not approved by management and she has received the pay for this fraud times. The owner of the company has talked to this employee ( this is what he has told me) but this has been going on for well over 2 yrs. Employee has been given direct orders by management to perform a task and has refused (task was part of her job that she was trained to do). There is a pattern and trend of refusals to perform work functions, not following direction, not punching in or out on time cards etc. What can I as a manager in this co do to dismiss this employee?

As a manager, you ought to be taking reasonable action to try to prevent any employee, management or otherwise, from being threatened and/or slurred, including by a non-employee. Such experiences could amount to workplace violence and/or harassment. If it is clear what company property may or may not be used for personal reasons, then unauthorized use may be culpable - disciplinable - behaviour. The time card matter you describe appears to be "time theft" which is also a very serious and disciplinable matter, possibly even a 'firing offence'. Refusing instructions that a supervisor is empowered to issue may be 'insubordination', also a potentially serious form of misconduct. Whether or not the Company is in a position to terminate for cause (i.e., without notice/severance obligations), however, may depend on the precise timing of these events (for example, if most/all occurred 2 years ago, then it might be said that the Company has 'condoned' this conduct), whether or not there is a record of disciplinary action taken (e.g., warnings), and other factors which will be important to consider in determining a recommended course of action. It is almost always possible to terminate "without cause" but in that case the employee may have notice (pay in lieu of notice) entitlements of which you need to be aware, both under statute and common law. As this appears to be a very "bad apple", it would be worth your while to contact us to discuss the details further in order to devise a concrete course of action and resolution.