Wrongful Termination In The Workplace

Human resource departments today have a more distinct, calculated position within organizations, and human resource strategy influences the bottom line. “One of the challenges for HR leaders is convincing executive leadership teams that human capital is one of the most important resources in which the company can invest” (Mayhew, 2014, p.). Subsequently, “this return on investment is an essential part of the argument for including HR as part of an overall business strategy” (Mayhew, 2014, p.). Human resource departments utilize the information given to them from company executives and leaders, coupled with their respective expertise on all things personnel, and they plan and implement staffing concerns for the betterment of the organization. From preparing job analysis, to comparing inventory and forecasting, it is the responsibility of human resources to consider the objectives of an organization and fulfill those goals while operating the specific planning relative to HR.

San Francisco has another wrongful termination suit in the news. A worker from Madera named Jason Pimentel claims that he was the victim of wrongful termination. Pimentel filed his complaint on June 13th against Velex, Inc., Nexius Solutions, Inc. Included in the complaint are a number of alleged violations. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

In a wrongful termination case, the terminated employee must prove more than having been treated unfairly, s/he must be able to prove one or more of his/her legal rights were violated” (Wrongful Termination Website, 2011). Employees in many states are at a disadvantage, possessing few rights, because of the employment at will rule, meaning employers can fire employees at any time and for no reason at all, just like employees can quit any time and for any reason. This makes the definition of wrongful termination extremely narrow.

The first issue to learn is the employment relationships are presumed to be “at-will” in all U.S. states except Montana. The U.S. is one of a handful of countries where employment is predominantly at-will. Most countries throughout the world allow employers to dismiss employees only for cause. The training should first define “At-Will”. According to (Pound, 2010),

Today 's fast-paced, competitive business environment has resulted in "rediscovery" of the human resource management function as a group that may be able to enhance firm competitiveness and performance by being "strategic" (Dyer & Kochan, 1995; Ulrich, 1997). Strategic Human Resource Management is a term describing an integrated approach to the development of Human Resource Strategy that will enable the organization to achieve its goals (Armstrong, 2005). Whiles strategy is an action that managers take to attain one or more of the organization’s goals. Strategy presents a general direction set for the company and its various components to achieve a desired state in the future. This results from the detailed

Human resources involves workers who are in charge of the organization and responsible for implementing strategies and policies that relate to the management of individuals. It is a very important part of a company’s success and ultimately decides how much the company can grow and achieve (Vasquez, 2003). Human resource managers seek to achieve this success by arranging the supply

Human resource helps in recruiting the most efficient employees for organizations. They support the use of training and development to improve individual employees as well as the whole organization. They make sure that the training given to the employees is effective and they support any changes that are essential for the improvement of the workplace (McLagan and Suhadolnick 1987). Human resource development now has evolved from just training to development of the whole organization or individual (Chalofsky and Lincoln 1983; Gilley 1998; Harris and DeSimone 1994; Kenny 1982; Nadler and Nadler

Terry Halbert and Elaine Ingulli describe the employment-at-will doctrine by stating that employers have the broad discretion to fire employees “for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all.” Employment-at-will is a legal rule that developed in the nineteenth century, giving employer’s unfettered power to “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.” In some states, courts have set limits by means of contract law. There are two main approaches: 1) to imply a promise of “good faith and fair dealing” in the contract of employment, or 2) to imply contractual terms (not to dismiss except for good cause, for instance) from an employer’s

During this week, we began to discuss the first chapter of the employment law textbook. The US employment laws are a mix of federal, state, and local laws that regulates how employers can conduct business in regard to employees. One of the topics discussed was employment at will. While employment at will first appears like an employer can fire or an employee can quit at any time, employment laws cover some instance where an employer could face a lawsuit. These instances include nondiscrimination based on protected classes, freedom to collectively bargain, protection of fundamental rights, and a few other instances. This is why companies are still cautious when hiring and firing employees. They typically document issues and incidents

Human Resource Management, was developed in the late 90’s, by R. Wayne Mondy and Judy Bandy Mondy. It was designed to help new students become familiar with human resource management, providing both realistic and practical scenarios of HR’s strategic role in planning and operating organizations. Through various examples from the research of company material, it demonstrates that all managers are necessarily involved with the human resources part of business, which is

Human Resources (HR) is fundamental to business performance and has a pivotal role to play in the decision making that enables organisations to operate effectively.

Techniques were established to assist employees with policies that could amend wrongfully discharging claims and unreasonable terminations by employers. Zachary described how ‘at will employment policy’ can be challenged if the employee can prove termination was unjustly enforced. The author studies employees who work at the will of the employer and the employers terminate the employees for unjust reasons; the ‘at will employment policy’ could be a shield of

Turning toward the human resources management (HRM) perspective, companies now include HRM as a strategic partner in accomplishing the goals of the organization. The human resources professional does not operate in isolation, but is an integral part of any organization’s strategic planning team. The human resources director “is first a business partner of the organization and then an human resources (HR) professional” (Purushotham, 2009, p. 177). The scope of the HR professional is to interpret the strategic goals of the organization, and create total compensation packages that will attract and recruit high-value targets for candidacy while being mutually beneficial for both the organization and the prospective employee.

The purpose of these procedures is to identify and mitigate the risks involved with the termination of employee, and to ensure that the organization’s sensitive data remains secure, and is not tampered with when an employee departs.

The field of human resources (HR) plays a critical role in the performance and success of organizations. As organizations have become increasingly more complex, the effective management of HR has become even more important. The traditional perception of HR as only an administrative office is no longer valid. Instead, contemporary HR is directly involved with the internal organizational structure, business operations, and variety of functions carried out by employees on a daily basis (Reed & Bogardus, 2012). HR functions impact the organization’s strategic planning, improvement processes, and goal achievement. Six core bodies of knowledge provide the foundation for all of these HR functions. These areas are: strategic