Assigment 1
Employment-at-Will-Doctrine
Professor Meredith Brasca
LEG 500 – Business Law
February 5th, 2014
Let’s said I have been named COO in a midsize company preparing for an Initial Public Offering (IPO). I quickly notice several personnel problems that require my immediate attention. Before I start talking about the scenarios, I would like to refer about employment doctrine at will. Employment at will is a legal term with a specific meaning. Employment at will means that a worker can be fired for any reason or no reason. The U.S. law gives this right to the employer, unless the reason is one that is covered under the law against discrimination (age, sex, race, national origin, etc.). Most employees are not union members, they are at will. When you're an employee at will, one can lose his job after having spent money on moving, or after leaving another job to take it. Most employees in these cases have no legal recourse against their employers. Employment at will also means that an employee may resign his post, for any reason, at any time. Exceptions to the law of employment at will is whether the employer has promised the employee a certain amount of work, even if there is a written contract. For example, if an employer speaks with a worker before it starts to work, and promises at least two weeks of work at strawberries fields, and then dismissed after only one week of work, it may be unlawful dismissal. Union contracts give more rights; consequently workers working under an employment contract are not employees at will. In addition, some individual employment contracts and personnel manuals make binding promises to be fulfilled by the employer (a promise not to be dismissed unless certain reasons or procedures) Now let’s start analyzing the seven different scenarios that I found out as soon I started my function as a COO:
1 - John posted a rant on his Facebook page in which he criticized the
Professor Meredith Brasca
LEG 500 – Business Law
February 5th, 2014
Let’s said I have been named COO in a midsize company preparing for an Initial Public Offering (IPO). I quickly notice several personnel problems that require my immediate attention. Before I start talking about the scenarios, I would like to refer about employment doctrine at will. Employment at will is a legal term with a specific meaning. Employment at will means that a worker can be fired for any reason or no reason. The U.S. law gives this right to the employer, unless the reason is one that is covered under the law against discrimination (age, sex, race, national origin, etc.). Most employees are not union members, they are at will. When you're an employee at will, one can lose his job after having spent money on moving, or after leaving another job to take it. Most employees in these cases have no legal recourse against their employers. Employment at will also means that an employee may resign his post, for any reason, at any time. Exceptions to the law of employment at will is whether the employer has promised the employee a certain amount of work, even if there is a written contract. For example, if an employer speaks with a worker before it starts to work, and promises at least two weeks of work at strawberries fields, and then dismissed after only one week of work, it may be unlawful dismissal. Union contracts give more rights; consequently workers working under an employment contract are not employees at will. In addition, some individual employment contracts and personnel manuals make binding promises to be fulfilled by the employer (a promise not to be dismissed unless certain reasons or procedures) Now let’s start analyzing the seven different scenarios that I found out as soon I started my function as a COO:
1 - John posted a rant on his Facebook page in which he criticized the