Employment-At-Will Doctrine In Today's Workforce: Case Study
Investigating the Effects of the Employment-At-Will Doctrine in Today’s Workforce
Christopher P. Fleischer
Strayer University
LEG 500
Everett Bensten
03 November 2014
Investigating the Effects of the Employment-At-Will Doctrine in Today’s Workforce The decision to keep certain employees and to terminate some should not be taken for granted and done at the spur of a moment. Employers have used the Employment-At-Will clause in its contracts with employees so they are well informed that it can “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”(Halbert & Ingulli, 2012, pg. 49). Even though this might give employers unrestricted power, they might want to consider given their employees rational reasons for …show more content…
It was not until employees wanted to self-organize that the doctrine started to change. According to the United States Supreme Court in NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steep Corp. (1937), every employee has the right to implement collective labor bargaining without retaliations from their employers. This credited a massive expansion of unions and worker rights groups which some still exist today. During the 1960’s, the employment-at-will doctrine changed again because of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This act prevented employers from terminating employees for certain basic rights and was expanded again in later years to include protection from being discharged base on their race, sex, religion, disabilities, national origin, and age. Another example of exemptions from this doctrine is the resent Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 extended an employee’s right to whistle blow against a company when that company is performing illegal acts pertaining to its finances and to its investors. Employees cannot be discharged for reporting those illegal
Christopher P. Fleischer
Strayer University
LEG 500
Everett Bensten
03 November 2014
Investigating the Effects of the Employment-At-Will Doctrine in Today’s Workforce The decision to keep certain employees and to terminate some should not be taken for granted and done at the spur of a moment. Employers have used the Employment-At-Will clause in its contracts with employees so they are well informed that it can “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”(Halbert & Ingulli, 2012, pg. 49). Even though this might give employers unrestricted power, they might want to consider given their employees rational reasons for …show more content…
It was not until employees wanted to self-organize that the doctrine started to change. According to the United States Supreme Court in NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steep Corp. (1937), every employee has the right to implement collective labor bargaining without retaliations from their employers. This credited a massive expansion of unions and worker rights groups which some still exist today. During the 1960’s, the employment-at-will doctrine changed again because of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This act prevented employers from terminating employees for certain basic rights and was expanded again in later years to include protection from being discharged base on their race, sex, religion, disabilities, national origin, and age. Another example of exemptions from this doctrine is the resent Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 extended an employee’s right to whistle blow against a company when that company is performing illegal acts pertaining to its finances and to its investors. Employees cannot be discharged for reporting those illegal