Employment at Will (EAW)

Angie C Cruz

Table of Contents
 TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc393736711" Abstract  PAGEREF _Toc393736711 \h
3
 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc393736712" Introduction  PAGEREF _Toc393736712 \h
4
 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc393736713" History of Employment at Will and Exceptions  PAGEREF _Toc393736713 \h
5
 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc393736714" Importance of the Practice to Employers and Employees  PAGEREF _Toc393736714 \h
6
 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc393736715" Criticisms of the Practice to Employer exists and Employees  PAGEREF _Toc393736715 \h
8
 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc393736716" Conclusion  PAGEREF _Toc393736716 \h
9
 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc393736717" References  PAGEREF _Toc393736717 \h
11


Abstract
This paper discusses the concepts within Employment at Will. Employment at Will is a doctrine that is practiced in the United States where it provides fundamental employment freedoms for employee and the employer as well (Eaton, 2000, p.154). This paper analyzes Employment at Will and various aspects of the law. The paper begins by introducing the doctrine of Employment at Will. At this, the paper defines the meaning of the doctrine and the purpose of the paper. The paper also discusses Employment at Will history by describing origins of the laws and the basic exceptions of this doctrine in various states. In the next section, the paper also talks about the importance of the practice of Employment at Will to the employer and an employee. On reading the paper, the reader will learn more about the practice of Employment at Will, the challenges that are faced by today’s business world due to the practice and how companies can avoid losing employers or clients due to the application of the law.
Under section five, paper criticizes the practice of the law by arguing on the grounds of the employer and an employee and how the doctrine affects the working environment. The paper also looks at issues of employee exploitation and the way the doctrine can be used to make employer run from the responsibility of paying an employee. The paper will also compares the advantages that contract employees have over those of Employment at Will. With this regard, the paper also looks at how the doctrine may affect the company environment as employees may quit work when the organization is facing economic challenges. The paper ends by providing for options that employers and employees have in protecting the relationship of both.
Introduction
Employment at Will is a legal practice in the United States to describe the contractual relationships where an employer is allowed to dismiss an employee for any reason known to him. In this case, there is no sort of proof for the action, and an employee can be allowed to do this even without warning an employee. An employee may also not be entitled to cost of loss or damage in the process. Employment at Will also works for an employee in the sense that the law allows for an employee to also leave place of work without reason or warning to the employer. The practice has come under criticism for on the grounds of inequality of bargaining power for an employee (Bliss & PHR, 2006,p. 123).
With this regard, Employment at Will is the process of hiring that is presumed to be at will. The employer is also free to fire employees with the right reasons or the wrong reason or with no reason at all. At the same time, an employee is free to resign or cease working. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the concept of Employment at Will in the United States by explaining the importance of the practice to employers and employees. The paper will also discuss the challenges of the practice on the side of the employer and an employee.
With this regard, the paper shall discuss some of the areas that must be reviewed in order to allow for equal benefits for the two parties under the law. This is because the law faces many challenges especially when it comes to ensuring that exploitation of employees is protected. In addition, employers are not left stranded especially after employees quite work to move to a new company offering better employment terms. The purpose of this paper thus, is to show that Employment at Will is a law that seems to work best for employers and suppresses the rights of employees especially when it comes to termination of employment and payment laws.
History of Employment at Will and Exceptions
The law started in England in the mid-1800s and was transformed in America where it allowed employees or employers to terminate employment without cause. However there were three exceptions, which is the public policy, implied contract and the covenant of good faith as discussed in the following pages. In most states, employees were usually paid per week meaning that their employment terms were not on a permanent basis. The terms of employment for each employee also meant the period at which she would be notified of being dismissed (Walsh, 2012, p. pp.354).
This also meant that in any situation an employer would dismiss an employee or even a good number of employees for any reason that an employee deemed necessary. The freedom of contract was important as it ensured that an employee was only dismissed on viable grounds, this made most people run away from the Employment at Will laws (Walsh, 2012, p. 231).
The practice of Employment at Will however emerged in the event of a treaty that was published by Horace Gray Wood in 1877 by the title Master and Servant. With this regard, the writer cited four United States cases as being an authority for his rule which dictated that when hiring was indefinite it meant that the servant or the worker was at the task of proving that an indefinite employment term was for a one-year basis. In Toussaint v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Michigan wood’s rule was also accepted by the courts as being an authority for any preposition (Pitchford, 2005, p.123). There was however another challenge in woods rule; one of the areas is that the rule was criticized for misinterpreting two of the case that showed Michigan and Massachusetts as having employees being provided with notice before they are dismissed with regard to the terms in the working contract. In some cases an employee’s dismissal was subject to being paid all the payment arrears as deserved (Muhl, 2001, p. 57).
The woods rules was also seen by some courts as requiring employees to prove evidence of the contract for a defined term so as to maintain an action that is based in the event of employee termination. This is where Employment at Will was born, meaning that an employee would be discharged for no apparent reason. From this moment on, all the states adopted the rule. For some states, the reaction by employees was not for the rule as it led to wrongful termination of employees across the states.
There are however many other exceptions that come with the Employment at Will law. First of all, there is a Public Policy, which protects an employee from seeking revenge in the event that an employee disobeyed the employer after the employer ordered him to do something that was illegal or immoral. The other exception comes in the whistleblowing rule; and this is evident in a situation where an employee decides to dismiss an employee because employee has reported illegal activity in the organization or on the discriminatory grounds as race, marital status, age among other areas.
There is also the Montana’s good cause rule which is commonly known as the Wrongful Discharge f...