Employment at Will
Essay Preview: Employment at Will
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Employment at will doctrine is defined as A contract of employment for an indeterminate term is terminable at will by either the employer or the employee; the traditional “American rule” governing employer-employee rations. (Nancy K. Kubasek, 2009) To explain that a little more in detail in our terms we have defined it as is common law doctrine that gives employers the right to hire, fire, demote and promote whomever they choose, at any time, with or without prior notice for any reason of their choice. This is the general rule of employment in the U.S. unless a agreement or contract states different or has a different relationship example a collective bargaining agreement from a labor union. (Mahoney, 2008)
Exceptions can be made based on public policy, implied contracts, or convent of good faith and fair dealing. Each exception has different meanings and different definitions. Below we will explain each for these 3 exceptions and also give examples in which these exceptions have taken place and even add a little bit of person experience.
Public policy can be explained as employers not being able to take negative action against any employee for fulfilling legal obligations or for exercising their legal rights. It has four key components which are refusing to commit illegal or unethical acts, performing legal duty, exercising legal rights and finally whistle blowing. Whistle blowing is a term generally referred to and best known as fraud or abuse by any employee or member of a organization. (Bowyer, 2004)
Implied contracts can best be explained as a agreement which is implied for circumstances, even when there has been little to no written contract between the employee and employer. Implied contracts generally help prevent employers from mistreating employees who are known to be at-will, this was created for obligations that each employer must follow. Examples of these implied contacts are most known as employee handbooks that say employees will be fired “because” another example could be a verbal promise made to any employee related to their job security.
Convent of good faith and fair dealing is known as a termination of a employee that was not justified if the employer did not act with honesty. Good faith and fair dealing assumes that there is a implied contract for every employment situation. This prevents any employer from termination of employment based on any decision made in bad faith which is how we get convents of good faith and now brings in fair dealings. The best example would be a employer firing someone just before they become a vested employee in a retirement and 401(K) plan.
Even though the U.S. has a wonderful and very well established employment-at-will doctrine with the majority of states have many circumstances that employers rights to take action under any employment-at-will doctrine. Due to the information we have listed above it is very important that