At-Will Employment
| Author | Jeffrey Wilson |
| Pages | 1069-1073 |
Page 1069
In many employment situations, the law generally considers the employment relationship to be terminable at the will of either party. That is, an employer may terminate an employee at the will of an employer, while an employee may quit at any time. When either of these events occur, the party that ends the relationship is not liable to the other, even if this termination causes damage to the other party. This type of relationship is termed employment at-will.
Although rules governing at-will employment remain largely intact today, courts and legislatures have crafted some exceptions to these rules. Some of these exceptions apply when the employer and the employee have entered into a contract. Other exceptions apply when the discharge violates a mandate of public policy or when an employer violates a duty to exercise good faith and fair dealing with the employee. Though these exceptions do not prohibit an employer from terminating an employee, they will allow the employee to recover damages. Individual states vary regarding protections offered to employees in an at-will employment relationship.
The United States remains the only major industrial power that adheres to the at-will employment doctrine. Other nations, including Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, and Japan, each have statutes that require employers to show good cause before the employers can terminate employees.
Historically, courts in England did not adhere to rules that recognized an employment relationship as one that could be terminated by either party at any time. In fact, ancient statutes and early decisions sought to protect employees by presuming that the employment relationship would last for a certain period of time, such as one year. This type of rule prevented employers from hiring employees for a short period of time, such as for the duration of a harvest season, and then firing the employee during the winter season, when the employee would not have food or shelter.
Courts in the United States during the 19th century began to follow the rule that where an employee did not have a contract for a fixed length of time, the employer could terminate the employment relationship at any time. H.G. Wood, an author of a leading treatise on the relationship between master and ser-
Page 1070
vant, formulated a rule in 1886 that set forth the employment at will doctrine. Nearly every state eventually adopted the at-will doctrine as the law governing employment relationships.
The employment at will doctrine contains three major rules. The first general rule is that an employer is not liable for any alleged damages suffered by an employee who is fired arbitrarily. Until courts in the1980s began to recognize exceptions to the at-will doctrine (see below), the courts generally refused to award damages to discharged employees, even in situations where the employer did not follow its own procedures or where the employer acted with malice. The second general rule is that an employee who alleges that his or her employment contract was for a specified term has the burden of proving that the contract was for a defined term. The third general rule is that a court will construe an employment contract for an indefinite period of time, including a contract for "permanent" employment, to mean that the employment relationship is at will.
The employment at will doctrine often leads to harsh results. Employees often feel a strong need for security in their jobs, but the doctrine provides no such security since an employer can terminate an employee without any recourse in the law. Civil rights legislation enacted in the 1960s provided support for the idea that employers should not have unfettered rights to hiring and firing of employees. Discharged employees challenged the at-will doctrine in courts during the 1970s and 1980s and eventually experienced some success. Courts began to allow employees to recover damages in suits for wrongful discharge.
The major exceptions to the employment at will doctrine are as follows:
The first recognized exception to the employment at will doctrine applies when an employer terminates an employee in a manner that violates public policy. This exception generally applies in four circumstances: (1) an employee refuses to...
To continue reading
Request your trial