Employment-At-Will Doctrine
Employment-At-Will Doctrine Shannon S. Valentine
Professor Boneita Campbell
LEG 500: Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance
Strayer University
July 22, 2012
Executive Summary
The United States of America is known throughout the world as the land of opportunity and freedom. Most people would agree with this statement, however in some situations this “opportunity” and “freedom” is not what it seems, especially in the job market. There is the freedom to start your own business, (where you can’t be fired), in this land of opportunity but a major negative is you cannot hardly afford health benefits being self-employed. If you turn to corporate America, the health benefits are great however the issue is the corporate employer can fire you …show more content…
Sometimes the company has a policy that allows the employee sick time, and then another policy that allows vacation time. The policies almost never allow for someone to miss a work day without notifying the company. In fact, most companies have the three day rule, called “no call, no show”. If the employee does not call in or show up for his/her shift for three days straight, then the termination papers are drawn up. Attendance is the one policy that can be well documented and many people get terminated for violating the attendance policy. Unemployment benefits can be turned down if the sole reason for termination was lack of attendance. The situation described above can be a little precarious because she was observing a religious holiday. Of course, a company has to follow federal law when it comes to some attendance issues. There are “four federal laws critical to employee absenteeism issues: the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII)” as explained in an article in HRhero.com. The article goes on to say, “Two other attendance issues protected by law are employees called to jury duty and employees who request time off for religious reasons. State and federal laws generally require employers to give workers leave when …show more content…
Even if you have worked for the company for thirty years, you can leave when you want. Socially, however, we seem surprised when we get let go because of downsizing and can do nothing about it. Most states have this law in place. If one person feels they were wrongfully terminated, it is almost financially impossible to afford your day in court up against a large corporation. Therefore most people just walk away and find other employment. Employment-at-will is a good law overall because as Americans, we expect our freedom to be able to hire into a job and leave a job when we want to. This freedom is more important than possibly being terminated for no apparent
Professor Boneita Campbell
LEG 500: Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance
Strayer University
July 22, 2012
Executive Summary
The United States of America is known throughout the world as the land of opportunity and freedom. Most people would agree with this statement, however in some situations this “opportunity” and “freedom” is not what it seems, especially in the job market. There is the freedom to start your own business, (where you can’t be fired), in this land of opportunity but a major negative is you cannot hardly afford health benefits being self-employed. If you turn to corporate America, the health benefits are great however the issue is the corporate employer can fire you …show more content…
Sometimes the company has a policy that allows the employee sick time, and then another policy that allows vacation time. The policies almost never allow for someone to miss a work day without notifying the company. In fact, most companies have the three day rule, called “no call, no show”. If the employee does not call in or show up for his/her shift for three days straight, then the termination papers are drawn up. Attendance is the one policy that can be well documented and many people get terminated for violating the attendance policy. Unemployment benefits can be turned down if the sole reason for termination was lack of attendance. The situation described above can be a little precarious because she was observing a religious holiday. Of course, a company has to follow federal law when it comes to some attendance issues. There are “four federal laws critical to employee absenteeism issues: the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII)” as explained in an article in HRhero.com. The article goes on to say, “Two other attendance issues protected by law are employees called to jury duty and employees who request time off for religious reasons. State and federal laws generally require employers to give workers leave when …show more content…
Even if you have worked for the company for thirty years, you can leave when you want. Socially, however, we seem surprised when we get let go because of downsizing and can do nothing about it. Most states have this law in place. If one person feels they were wrongfully terminated, it is almost financially impossible to afford your day in court up against a large corporation. Therefore most people just walk away and find other employment. Employment-at-will is a good law overall because as Americans, we expect our freedom to be able to hire into a job and leave a job when we want to. This freedom is more important than possibly being terminated for no apparent