Employment at will, USERRA and IRCA This paper examines selected employment laws – namely exceptions to employment at will, The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) and Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) – and how they impact the functions of human resources. Employment at will and exceptions In all states with the exception of Montana which protects employers who have completed a probationary period, employers can discharge their employees without cause or change the terms of employment as they deem fit (Nyce and Bodenner, 2016). Employees can also leave employment at their own discretion. This is known as employment at will. Terms of employment that can be changed when the employer has the right to exercise employment at will include reduction of salaries or wages, altering employee benefits, changing working hours and schedule or changing the job content and responsibilities. Therefore, most companies state that they employ “at-will”. …show more content…
Exceptions to employment at will include federal and state laws, collective bargaining agreements through unions and associations, employment contracts in certain industries and organizations, implied contracts usually derived from employer handbook, public policy of most states, statutory protections against discrimination and covenant of good faith and fair dealing (Nyce and Bodenner, 2016). There is also recourse for employees who feel that their employers have treated them unjustly even in situations where the employer has the right to exercise employment at will. This recourse may be within the company itself or through the state and federal justice
Employment practices of organizations in the United States are regulated at federal and state levels. The human resource process is impacted by regulatory requirements in the workplace. Legal and social regulations are crucial when managing the workforce or future supplies for labor in the workplace.
In addition, the “At-Will-Employment Law” gives the employer the capacity to unfairly change the terms of the employment relationship with no notice and no consequences.
An “at will” employee is an employee who agreed to a contract in which they can be fired at any time, for almost any reason. The law generally presumes that employees are employed at will unless they can prove otherwise.
The employment At-Will doctrine is in place to allow employment relationships to be restricted. It allows employers and employees to terminate a relationship at any time without cause. The doctrine will allow employees to quit without any fear of being held liable for any inconvenience or disruption to the business at the time of quitting. This doctrine also allows employers to make any changes towards an employee’s term of employment (N, 2017). However, some exceptions could prevent an employee to make those changes if the employee is covered in that particular area. Doyle A
However, the ruling in this case and others like it prove that employers can, in fact, be bound by articles written in an employee handbook when disciplining or discharging an employee. An abysmally written handbook can greatly jeopardize an employer’s right to terminate at will. Trends show that courts are increasingly acknowledging enforceable promises in the past employment practices of firms, in employer handbooks and in oral commitments. In addition to including an at-will disclaimer in employee handbooks, employers should also require employees to sign an acknowledgment confirming that they understand and agree to employment-at-will and that at-will employment can at any time be modified by a written agreement. Personnel manuals should explicitly state that the employer reserves the right to terminate employment at will. All written policies should also be free of any language that could be considered as a guarantee of job security. To be sure that these common pitfalls are avoided employers must retain the service of a labor attorney to draft and air-tight employee manual and acknowledgment
In dealing with a person’s livelihood, and often, sense of self, it is of no surprise that ethical issues regarding employment practices are of great concern. The issues of employment at will and due process contracts in the workplace are among the most widely contentious in the realm of employment. Employment at will is the doctrine that employment may be ended, by either party, for good, bad or no cause at all.1 Due process, on the other hand, is the employment practice in which a person may appeal a decision as a means of receiving an explanation and the opportunity to argue against it.2 Employment at will is the standard in the majority of private corporations today and is argued for relentlessly by freedom of contract enthusiasts,
| |How might managers in an organization use knowledge of employment-at-will and its exceptions | | |
On the contrary, employment at will is defended by Richard Epstein in his article “In Defense of the Contract at Will”. He is trying to show that the contract at will “is adopted not because it allows the employer to exploit the employee, but rather because over a very broad range of circumstances it works to the mutual benefit of both parties.” Then I will summarize the benefits of EAW that Epstein provides.
Employment at will is a law that is present in all fifty states in the US; although, in Montana there requires a stated cause for termination. Employment at will creates dissent among employees when they have been terminated for a cause that is thought to be unsubstantial or when no cause is given. There are pros and cons to the presumption, and employees and employers have different views. Employment at will means that the employer can terminate an employee at any time, for any cause without warning. However, even an at-will employee cannot be terminated because of discriminatory reasons. Employment at will also means that an employee can leave a job at any time without the fear of facing any legal consequences. An employer can also
The term "at will" applies both to the person hired and to the person who does the hiring. As the term suggests, both parties have the ability to end the employment whenever they wish because there are no "strings" attached to it (Employee Issues, 2012). In a normal contract situation, a person is employed for a specified amount of time and the individual knows that as long as a contract is in force what is expected and the remuneration that comes with the employment. This type of contract comes with a guarantee of employment as long as the individual meets the requirements of the contract. A contract also guarantees the employer that the employee has to fulfill certain obligations by law. In the case of "at will" employment, there is no contract signed by either party. Even though the employee may interview and have to fill out certain paperwork to obtain the job, they are not contracted for the work. The employee is hired with the understanding that they can leave employment at any time and that the employer can do the same. This also means that the employer is free to change the specifications of the job any time they will (Employee Issues, 2012). Another facet of this type of employment is that the employer is free to choose the type of employee they want. Even if a policy seems discriminatory, the employer is able to apply it if it does not in some way violate the law. As a final note on the definition of such employment, employers will generally
Based on facts and legal laws, the judge can look over the evidence and rules and make a decision. The employment-at-will doctrine clearly states that the employer can fire the employee at any time for any reason. There are many exceptions to the employment-at-will
Warhane and Radin, in their article “Employment at Will and Due Process”, suggest that one of the major reasons employment at will is acceptable is that it protects the proprietary rights of employers. In particular “the proprietary rights of employers guarantee that they may employ or dismiss
Employment-at-will has been an established segment of common law in the United States, which states that either party to
Employment discrimination refers to employees who are discriminated by employers because of employee’s race, gender, physical and mental disability, age, and religious beliefs. It is a serious problem since the employment relationship appeared. With the effort of many individuals and organizations and the protection of laws and policies, employment discrimination have been reduced to some extent, while it is still severe in many areas and countries. This paper focuses on common discrimination in employment on the basis of some human resource laws and tries to figure out how to alleviated discrimination by effective human resource management.
Employment at will is a common-law rule used by employers to assert their right to end an employment relationship with an employee at any time for any cause. I disagree with this concept that that an employer can terminate an employee at any time for any reason, as long as they don’t discriminate in doing so, because it is reverse physiological way to motivate an employee and causes anxiety. This concept was originally introduced to promote flexibility in the labor market, but I think it hurts business.