David Hare

It all depends. Is she covered by a collective bargaining agreement, company policy, specific state laws governing this topic? Most likely nothing illegal happened. However, the morale for this employee has obviously dropped and when the other employees see what your company has done they will not be too happy either.

The best plan is to have a policy in place and follow it. This way the employees know what to expect.

Are you the HR manager? If you are you should make sure that you are involved in all these type of decisions so they can have the benefit of your experience.