Employment At-Will

7 Pages 1788 Words

Employment at Will
The industrial revolution changed the status of workers and employment soon became a purely economic relationship. By 1877, Horace G. Wood wrote an authoritative treatise on the law of master and servant and expressed the American rule as follows: "with us the rule is inflexible, that a general or indefinite hiring is prima facie hiring at-will...". Under the at-will-employment rule, an employee was free to terminate his or her employment relationship at any time for any reason and the employer was likewise permitted to terminate the employee with no reason. This employment-at-will rule remained the law until the rule began to be eroded through statutory exceptions.
The employment-at-will doctrine is not absolute. As soon as it was developed, the courts recognized that a strict employment at-will doctrine could be unfair and contrary to policies established by the legislature. While many employee and employers know that states recognize the employment at-will doctrine, they may not be aware that this doctrine is not a Federal employment law, it is a common law.
Since the first announcing of the at-will rule the courts have established several common law and statutory exceptions to at will employment. In his book, Heneman explains: Common law is court-made law based upon case by case decisions which over an extended period of time sets a precedence in determining permissible and impermissible actions. Every state develops and administers its own common law. Employment at-will is treated at the state level.
However, there are Federal laws that dictate legal exceptions to employment at will. Many legislatures have gradually entered into protection statue areas and began chipping away at the employment at-will doctrine. Some of the many more common exceptions protected by the Federal Law include Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, American Disabilities Act. Alone, these a...