The employment-at-will doctrine is an American labor law that states that employment is for a particular period and can be terminated by the employee or the employer. In the doctrine, the employer or the employee can willingly fully terminate the employment contract without repercussion. Also, the doctrine states that an employer can change the terms of employment for instance the wages, terminal benefits or reduce paid time off without notice. (Freedman, 1994). For the doctrine to be applied there should be no illegal reason behind ceasing the employment, for instance, misappropriation of the company funds.
Application
Employment-at –will can be applied due to the poor performance of the employee. If the employee does not meet the performance target of a company, then the contract can be terminated. For example during the performance appraisal time and the employee performance is below the company target, the employer can terminate the contract. A good example is the sales job where employees are given a target, and if they do not meet them they are fired (Kaufman, 1997).
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"The Doctrine Of Employment-at-Will".
Employment-at-will can also be due to employee misconduct. If the employee goes against the company code of ethics, the employee may be sacked. For instance, the employee does not adhere to the company dressing code, time of arrival to the job and poor conduct while at the job. Also, acts of corruption, for example, members of procurement department accepting bribes so that they can give a tender to a particular company. Another form of misconduct that can lead to termination of the employment contract is a lack of confidentiality; a good example is where an employee leaks company information to the rival companies. If the management finds the employees leaking confidential information, they can fire them (Kaufman, 1997).
Economic necessity can also lead to the termination of the employment contract. For instance, if the company is suffering from financial crisis such as decreasing sales resulting to low profits the company management can decide to retrench some of its staff (Kaufman, 1997). Economic necessity has been quite popular because many companies in the United States have retrenched many of its employees due to decreasing earnings.
Exception of Employment-at-Will-Doctrine
Employment –at-will doctrine cannot be applied in a scenario where there is public interest policy. Public interest policy aims at protecting employees against adverse employment acts that violate public interest. Also, the public interest varies depending on the state. The variation of public policy may vary broadly or narrowly depending on the state. Examples of public interest policy include employees’ refusal to perform acts that prohibit law, reporting a breach of rules, doing acts that are not in public interest domain and exercising statutory rights (Freedman, 1994).
Also, when employees are under contract, employment-at-will can only be applied if the contract terms and conditions permit. For example, the employment acts state that, and the contract cannot be terminated for a particular period, and then employer terminates the contract. In this scenario, the employer has not followed the contract because he has already breached the contract (Freedman, 1994).When employees are dismissed in this case; they can sue the employer in the court of law for the damages.
Also, when there is implied a covenant of good faith and fairly dealing, the employer should not dismiss the employee. An example includes, a firm firing older staff to avoid paying retirement benefits to them or a sales company dismisses one of its employees after noticing that he will earn a huge commission. The judicial interpretation of the covenant of good faith and dealing varies depending on states. Some of the states do not apply the statutory only because only eleven states applies the law (Freedman, 1994).
Before taking any step, it is very important to understand the legal as well as the ethical consequences of the action. Such issue raises questions of justice, public policy, the law as well as organizational structure. Ethical issues have become a significant area in the corporate world that most businesses deal with on a regular basis. This need is growing with the continuous development of technology. As a manager, it is very important to be aware of the ethical obligations of some of the decisions. Privacy is a problem that arises as a result of companies accessing individual information on the history of the website that one has visited as a way of developing customer trends. In accordance with the ethical principles, it is vital to keep corporations at the top and far away from the negative things that are as a result of unethical practices.
The importance of ethics and knowledge of the law is growing tremendously and becoming more dependent on the information systems in the business world today. The consequences of such unlawful and unethical behaviors can be of great harm to the company as well as the society as a whole. The ease of the use of the information systems has brought concerns where some of the employees might be tempted to unethical behaviors. Increased technology can even allow for copying of copyright information.
When faced with ethical issues it is important to understand the consequences of such decisions. Since a simple act might result in serious consequences to the extent of even hurting the company’s reputation. Some of these actions if not taken seriously can result in corrupt behavior from the employees. The corporation will not only be hurt by the lawsuits as a result of such unethical decisions, but the image as well will be badly hurt.
There are so many ethical and legal principles that will help the firm to make better decisions. All the decisions should be looked at but the one that produces the best results for the company as well as the customers chosen. The risk aversion principle advocates for those actions those are least risky. It is, therefore, important for the corporations to address these legal as well as ethical issues to avoid legal scandals as well as avoid hurting the reputation of the company. The utilitarian theory of ethics best explains this. However, it is much consequence based that employers take the course of action that results in more good to the greatest number of the relevant stakeholders.
The hardest part of having employees the act of occasionally having to fire them. Plaintiff Jane Kay worked as a security officer initially working the evening shift. Later she was offered the daytime job. The company then told her that daytime position would not be extent beyond 2011 holiday season. Some days before the end of daytime of daytime she applied for employment benefits which led to her termination on the last day of daytime position. The companies claim was that she was based on poor performance, lack of business need and her unwillingness to work on other shift. She filled a law suit against the former employer. She claimed that she was discharged wrongfully for filing an employment compensation benefits.
The court, however, dismissed her lawsuit. The court held that there was no cause of action that existed to protect an employee against the unlawful retaliation for filing an unemployment benefits claim. The district court in return awarded employer $1361 for having to defend itself rejecting Jane’s claim that he status should preclude such an award against her. According to the employment at will doctrine, an employer can dismiss an employee (Ford et al, 2000). The dismissal can result from any reason whatsoever without warning or establishment of a just clause.
- Ford, K. E., Notestine, K. E., Hill, R. N., & American Bar Association. (2000).Fundamentals of employment law. Chicago, Ill: Tort and Insurance Practice, American Bar Association.
- Freedman, W. (1994). Internal company investigations and the employment relationship. Westport, Conn: Quorum Books.
- Kaufman, B. E. (1997). Government regulation of the employment relationship. Madison, WI: Industrial Relations Research Assoc.
