The At Will Doctrine Is A Rule Of Contract Law

One of the things everyone looks forward to is having security. However, the job market has not been strong enough to give job security. Since the Market crashed in 2008, there has been an increase in “at will” employees. At will employment means that the company or the firm has the right to terminate your employment at any given time for any reason with or without a legit cause. At will also give employees the flexibility to quit their job as they wish without giving any notice or reason. In “Employment at Will and Due Process” by Patricia A. Wethane and Tara J. Radin expresses their views on “At Will” employment. Radin and Werhane mention several views on ethical treatment of employees, in principle and in practice, against at will employment. In this article they believe it violates certain rights that employees have, it violates the principle of fairness, and there are certain legal objections.

When we are dealing with the employment relationship between employers and employees, ethical issues are most likely to emerge. Especially, if a manager fires a worker without a proper reason, critics will follow this employer’s behavior. In Patricia Werhane’s paper, “Employment at Will and Due Process”, discusses two doctrines which are Employment at Will (EAW) and Due Process. It also addresses some justifications and objections for EAW, and shows Werhane’s supportive view to Due Process. In contrast, EAW is defended by Richard Epstein in his article “In Defense of the Contract at Will”. In my paper, I will attempt to develop my argument in favor of Employment at Will that could improve flexibility and efficiency of

The employment at will doctrine is a very interesting doctrine. According to it, employers can fire employees for good, bad or no cause at all. Employees need to pay close attention to the doctrine under which their employment contract was offered or signed. A good example of this is the case of Waddell v. Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, Inc.

The at-will employment doctrine is the belief that employers have the right to fire anyone at any time for any reason,

Dismissal of employees has to provide a valid reasoning, appropriate notice, as well as written and oral reasons. Under the employment-at-will doctrine, it states that “the employer’s right to terminate the employment relationship at any time, for any reason, with or without notice, as long as the employer is not violating any oral or written contracts, public policy or fair dealing”. Although the doctrine states that employers are able to terminate their relationship with employees at any time, there are laws in which the employees are protected under. According to Title VII, by law it prohibits employers from terminating employment due to race, religion, color, gender or national origin. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) also prohibits employers from terminating employment based on age 40 years or over. Once the

An employment-at-will doctrine is a common law that states an employer can hire, fire, promote, or demote an employee at anytime for any reason as long as there is a law or doctrine that does not oppose it. As an employer can fire an employee for any reason at any time, likewise an employer can quit a job for any reason at any time. ‘The economic philosophy of laissez-faire provided theoretical support for employment-at-will.” (Ingulli, 2012).

The employment-at-will doctrine states that an employee can be fired or released from a company for cause or no cause at all. The employee also has the right to quit a job for any reason. Under this legislation, neither the employer or employee incurs “adverse legal consequences” (NCSL, 2014). There are three exceptions that are observed by the law to include a dismissal that “violates a state’s public policy, where there is an implied contract for employment, or where there is an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing” (Muhl, 2001, p4). People cannot be fired based on the “individual’s race, color, religion,

The employer generally invests time locating a candidate to hire, and resources for salary, benefits and training to ensure success for both the employee and the company. The employee can terminate his/her employment at any time, for any reason; thus, leaving the employer at a disadvantage. The employer has to recoup the company losses by again invest time and money to hire another employee with no guarantee that the new hire will stay any longer than the previous employee. Is this fair or ethical behavior toward the employer? Do employers ask that the employee reimburse them for the time and resources expended to hire a replacement? Should they? In an effort to create equity in risk and benefit between employee and employer, the at-will employment doctrine allows the employer to terminate an employee at any time, for any reason. But again, is this fair or ethical behavior towards the employee? Don 't businesses have a greater amount of power than an employee in determining work environment and pay scale? Is it ethical for an employer to take advantage of their employees and fire those who make a high salary and replace them with employees with a lower starting pay in order to save money or distribute bonuses to top executives? Cornell University Law School notes that "given the unequal bargaining power between employees and employers, critics of this doctrine have noted its overly harsh results and have looked to unions, acting as certified

Terry Halbert and Elaine Ingulli describe the employment-at-will doctrine by stating that employers have the broad discretion to fire employees “for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all.” Employment-at-will is a legal rule that developed in the nineteenth century, giving employer’s unfettered power to “dismiss their employees at will for good cause, for no cause, or even for cause morally wrong, without being thereby guilty of a legal wrong.” In some states, courts have set limits by means of contract law. There are two main approaches: 1) to imply a promise of “good faith and fair dealing” in the contract of employment, or 2) to imply contractual terms (not to dismiss except for good cause, for instance) from an employer’s

The ‘at will employment policy’ overview is employers can terminate an employee anytime and without warning or notice. However, the ‘at will employment’ has been challenged in some states because the policy was developed in the 20th century. Legal experts believe the ‘at will employment policy’ needs to be revised for the following reason: the ‘at will employment policy’ has been abused by some

The Employment-at Will Doctrine is a common law rule that gives the employers dominant decisions to fire employees “for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all” (Halbert & Ingulli, 2012, p 46). At-will employees are those who work without employment contracts. An employment contract is a shared bartering arrangement between an employer and employee. At- will employees can make the same dominant

Employment-at-Will is a legal rule giving employers unfettered power to dismiss there employees at will for good cause, for no cause, or even for cause morally wrong without being guilty of a legal wrong. The exceptions to the employment at will rule was announced in 1935 where employer could use the rule to intimidate or coerce its employees with respect to their self-organization. For example union, collective bargaining agreement protects workers from being fired except for

Employment at- will means that either party may terminate the employment relationship at any time and for any reason, unless doing so violates an employee’s statutory or contractual rights.

Employment at will is essentially a rule that strips employees and employers from their rights to due process when it comes to workplace termination. Under this principle employers may let any person go for any reason at any time during their employment with or without just cause. Your stature at the company, time worked, personal conduct; none of those things have to be taken into consideration if you are let go. This means that if an employee does not agree with their grounds for termination, they have no legal right to fight it in a court of law. Employment at will also allows employees to quit their job at any time, again regardless of having just reasoning or not. The only case where an employment at will principle would not apply is if an employee, when hired, signed a document that stipulates other specific terms and conditions regarding grounds for termination/quitting. An important thing to make note of is just as if an employee had signed a contract, they are made aware before being brought on full time, that they are an “at will” employee. These soon to be employees are voluntarily signing that they abide by what is defined in the employment at will principle.

In the world, it is hard to sometimes hard to balance life between things that don’t involve work and things that involve your work. At-Will Employment is a contractual relationship between an employee and an employer that allows dismissal for any reason without just cause. The idea of at-will employment originated in 1877 with Horace Gray Wood. Horace Gray Wood dealt with master and slave relations. The question with at-will employment becomes is it ethical to let an employee go based on non-work difficulties. The ethical decision that is being examined is “Is it ethical for a manager to terminate an employee whose performance has markedly declined non account of dealing with non-work personal difficulties?” The at-will doctrine is