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The State Of Maryland, All Employment Is Considered At Will

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In the state of Maryland, all employment is considered “at-will”. From the text, the definition of at-will employment is employers have the “…discretion to fire employees ‘for a good reason, bad reason, or no reason at all.’” (Halbert & Ingulli, 2012) From Maryland’s Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation, employment at will is defined as “In Maryland, employees work "at the will" of their employers. This means, in the absence of an express contract, agreement or policy to the contrary, an employee may be hired or fired for almost any reason -- whether fair or not -- or for no reason at all.” (https://www.dllr.state.md.us/labor/wagepay/wpatwill.shtml) Because of the employment at will doctrine, people risk losing their jobs for …show more content…

Alpharma Inc. From the case, employment at will is defined, “The employment at will doctrine provides that, an employment contract of indefinite duration, that is, at will, can be legally terminated at the pleasure of either party at any time without giving rise to a cause of action for breach of contract. The doctrine has its roots in the freedom to contract or to engage in a business enterprise.” (Parks vs Alpharma, 2011) Debra Parks’ trial was decided on in the Circuit Court of Baltimore City in December 2010. The court ruled in the favor of Alpharma. She then appealed the decision to the Court of Appeals of Maryland in July of 2011, where they affirmed the decision of the Circuit Court of Maryland. Debra Parks was terminated by her employer after working on a marketing project of a prescription drug to physicians. Her argument was that her termination was in violation of public policy. According the court, there was no evidence present to support her argument of the violation of public policy. According to employment at will, she was fired legally. Scenario 1 John posted a rant on his Facebook page in which he criticized the company’s most important customer. Legally John can be fired. With the understanding of virtue ethics, people are trained to do the right thing. It is unprofessional to speak negatively of any customer who has dealings with your business and doing so sets a bad reputation when people know what company you

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