Employment at-will
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Institution
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Employment-at-will
Employment at will is a free exercise of duties by employee in workplace as well as free exercise of employer’s decisions and actions over the employee’s continuous stay in the work place. The decision to stop service delivery at any mo+mentwithout giving a warning and seek employment in another place. It also means that the employer is at free will to layoff the employee for any cause at any time without notice. This aspect of employee leaving jobs without giving a notice and employer’s superiority to fire employees summarizes the term employment at will. Employment at will is considered one sided. It favors employers as they make decisions concerning the place of work productivity, workforce and operations. Employees on the other hand are not guaranteed on job security and thus unfair. The employee’s awareness that their services are temporary and they can be dismissed any time is harsh. They won’t be fully supportive.
One of the legal cases related to wrong termination of a job is that of Toussaint v. Blue cross and & Blue Shield of Michi-gan in 1980. The case was presented before the Supreme Court of Michi-gan by Charles Toussant against Blue Cross. Toussant was a senior manager in Blue Cross for five years. His job was terminated without any notice. The employment terms about job security in the Blue Cross was that Toussant would continue working for the company as long as he worked (Muhl, 2001). The company had 260 pages long personnel policies which were handed to him during hiring. One of the contents in the manual was that Blue Cross has authority to fire employees for any reason.
The court ruled out that it was unfair for the company to dismiss its employees for just any reason. If employee is fired for no valid reason he should file a case against the employer. There should be well-defined policies on firing the employees to assure employees of job security. I agree with this outcome. Job security is a motivating factor in work places. Job security leads to loyalty and hard work. A friendly working environment is also created by well-laid down policies.
References
Muhl, C. J., (2001). “ The employment at-will doctrine: three major exceptions.” Monthly labor review, vol.124.