Week 4 Assignment

Week 4 Assignment

Employee At-Will

Those employees which have a contract with their employer and their service period can be terminated at any time are known as at will employees. There are certain legal restrictions for the employer, who cannot dismiss the employees for certain reasons. The restrictions/exceptions are known as public policy exception, implied contract exception and covenant of good faith exception. In 1964 Civil Rights have enlarged the perimeter of discrimination protection to employees who are terminated on the basis of gender or racial discrimination. This was to protect the employees for the employer exploitation. The employees provide a strong base for the termination; however, the primary motives of termination were discrimination and biases (McAdams et al, 2012).

Possible restrictions an employer might have on dismissing an at-will employee.3

Public policy protection

Under the public policy exception the employee is wrongfully discharged when an employee is wrongfully discharged against a clearly mention public/state policy mentioned. The employer cannot terminate the employee based on refusing to break the law, filing for the compensation after getting injured while working. Public policy exception is among the most widely accepted exceptions as it has been adopted in 43 states of USA. Majority of the states in USA do accept the public policy exception of the employee at will doctrine. This regulation prevents employees from being terminated unlawfully. The prime objective of this policy is to ensure that employers do not exploit the employees on the basis their objection or acceptance against committing any unlawful acts or behaving under mentioned public policy (Summers, 2000).

Every individual in United States is bound with the legal duty of serving in a jury. An individual who does not appears on jury is charged with contempt of court and is fined. The employers have no right to fire people who re serving on juries or else the whole system will be compromised. An individual fired for serving on jury is a victim of wrongful termination. If the employer harasses the employee for being present on jury or terminates the employee, the case must be reported immediately to the office of jury. Whistle blower protection is a statutory extension of the public policy protection. The employer may be subjected to the legal consequences if the employee is fired based on informing state about the malpractices or illegal activities of the company (Muhl, 2001).

Implied Contract Exception

The second policy is the implied contract exception, which is applicable whenever an implied contract is formed between employee and employer. Employment status is primarily not governed by the contract. Any oral communication between employee and employer at the time of hiring is considered the part of employment contract. The situations in which courts found that implied contracts could be the terms and conditions mentioned in the employees handbook. The terms and conditions are vague and do not specify the procedures or causes under which a termination might take place. Many companies use vague language in the contracts of manuals in order to avoid these ...