Leg 500 Employment at Will Doc
Abstract
During the nineteenth century a legal rule was developed giving employer’s unfettered power to “dismiss their employees at will for good cause, for no cause or for cause morally wrong, without being thereby guilty of a legal wrong.” (Halbert, 2012, p. 49). This legal rule is commonly known as Employment-At-Will and ultimately the employer has the rights to sever the employer-employee relationship at any given time for any given reason and whether or not the employee thinks wrongful separation. It is a topic that is debated for many years and in today’s current economy and unemployment rate steadily increasing “Employment-at-will” is a doctrine that is being used more frequently as employers experience their present day lows. Employers however have to keep in mind the other that in 1960, federal civil rights laws created remedies against employers who fire workers because of their race, national origin, color, religion, sex, age, or disability (Halbert, 2012, p. 49). Later, in 1970s and 1980s, federal and state statutes include protection from retaliation for employees who report violations of environmental or workplace safety laws and those individuals are commonly known as “whistleblowers”. In essence, whistle blowers are typically long term, highly loyal employees who feel strongly that their company should do the right thing, because in the wave of scandal with major firms such as Enron and World.Com; Congress enacted corporate fraud reform legislation which provides provisions to protect those who report financial misconduct in publicly traded companies. This law is known as Sarbanes-Oxey, or SOX (Halbert, 2012, p. 50).
In this assignment the scenario begins as a manager and supervisor of an accounting department, discuss the following issues related to the employment-at-will doctrine and liability of an employer based on actions and responses to the employee’s behavior and actions. Jennifer, a recent graduate, has recently been hired by your
During the nineteenth century a legal rule was developed giving employer’s unfettered power to “dismiss their employees at will for good cause, for no cause or for cause morally wrong, without being thereby guilty of a legal wrong.” (Halbert, 2012, p. 49). This legal rule is commonly known as Employment-At-Will and ultimately the employer has the rights to sever the employer-employee relationship at any given time for any given reason and whether or not the employee thinks wrongful separation. It is a topic that is debated for many years and in today’s current economy and unemployment rate steadily increasing “Employment-at-will” is a doctrine that is being used more frequently as employers experience their present day lows. Employers however have to keep in mind the other that in 1960, federal civil rights laws created remedies against employers who fire workers because of their race, national origin, color, religion, sex, age, or disability (Halbert, 2012, p. 49). Later, in 1970s and 1980s, federal and state statutes include protection from retaliation for employees who report violations of environmental or workplace safety laws and those individuals are commonly known as “whistleblowers”. In essence, whistle blowers are typically long term, highly loyal employees who feel strongly that their company should do the right thing, because in the wave of scandal with major firms such as Enron and World.Com; Congress enacted corporate fraud reform legislation which provides provisions to protect those who report financial misconduct in publicly traded companies. This law is known as Sarbanes-Oxey, or SOX (Halbert, 2012, p. 50).
In this assignment the scenario begins as a manager and supervisor of an accounting department, discuss the following issues related to the employment-at-will doctrine and liability of an employer based on actions and responses to the employee’s behavior and actions. Jennifer, a recent graduate, has recently been hired by your
References: Halbert, T. a. (2012). Law and Ethics in the Business Environment. Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning. Kermit, B. (2012). How to terminate an employee for poor work performance. Small Business Equiette, 29. Muhl, C. J. (2001). "The Employment-At-Will Doctrine: Three Major Exceptions". Montly Labor Review, 3-11.