Chapter 20.1
Employment Relationships
PRE-LEARNING QUESTIONS:
Answer on a sheet of paper (not to turn in)
List at least 5 jobs people have that may be
part of a union.
List 3 rights & duties of an employer.
List 3 rights & duties of an employee.
Employment Law
Chapters 20 & 21
Chapter 20.1
Employment Relationships
Why should I know Employment Law?
 Understanding the nature of at-will
employment will help you determine
whether your rights have been violated
if you are discharged by an employer.
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Employment Relationships
What You Will Learn This Chapter
• How to define employment-at-will
• Identify those situations that fall outside
at-will employment
• Identify exceptions to employment-at-will
• Distinguish between implied contract &
implied covenant
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Employment At Will
Employment-At-Will is the general rule
governing employment in most states. It
means an employer is permitted to
discharge an employee at any time for
any or no reason with or without
notice. The same holds true for the
employee. Each has free will.
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Employment At Will
If an employee did not have free will to
leave as they choose they would be a
slave.
Employment-at-will allows both parties to
leave the employment arrangement at
any time.
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Employee Unions
Employment-at-will does not apply to
employees protected by a union.
Union is an organization of employees that is
formed to promote the welfare of its
members.
The contract of a union employee is called a
collective bargaining agreement. These
contracts are negotiated between the
employer and representatives of the union.
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Collective Bargaining Agreement
Items that are covered in this type of contract
typically include:
Working Conditions Promotions
Wages
Retirement/401(k)
Benefits
Severance Pay
Job Security
Firing Procedures
Layoff
Grievance procedures
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Grievance Procedures
Grievance procedures are established steps
an employee must follow to appeal a
decision made by an employer if the
employee thinks the employer violated
the collective bargaining agreement.
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Severance Pay & Layoffs
Having a collective bargaining agreement and
being in a union does not guarantee you have
a job. The economy can cause layoffs and
plant closings.
Should you be laid off or your job closes you
can be given severance pay which is a set
amount of $$ compensated to employees for
being discharged. It is meant to help
employees through the time they are
unemployed.
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Illegal Discrimination
No one, no matter what type of contract they
have, can be discharged for a reason that is
discriminatory in nature.
Discrimination = treatment based on a category/class
not an individual person’s merit
Civil Rights Act of 1964 created 5 Protected
Classes (Today there are 7)
5 Protected Classes: Race
Color
Creed
Gender National Origin
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Illegal Discrimination
Another class was protected later on by the
Age Discrimination Act which protects
people from being fired or discharged
based on their age
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Rights & Duties of Employers & Employees
Every employer and employee has certain mutual
(similar) expectations in their working
relationships.
Employee Right:
To be able to make reasonable complaints
Employee Duties:
To be loyal, honest, dependable
To abide by the rules set up by employer
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Rights & Duties of Employers & Employees
Employer Rights:
To expect employees to have experience, skills and education
they claim to possess
To provide a reasonable amount of work within a reasonable
amount of time
To tell employees what tasks to perform & how to perform
them
Employer Duties:
To provide regular pay
To provide a safe work environment & safe tools
To provide job training & opportunities to earn promotions
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Exceptions to Employment-at-Will
Remember: Employment-at-will states the
employer can discharge an employee at
anytime for any reason!
Sometimes terminating an employment
contract under the doctrine of
employment-at-will will result in
injustices and courts will challenge the
doctrine.
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Exceptions to Employment-at-Will
Remember: Employment-at-will states the
employer can discharge an employee at
anytime for any reason!
Sometimes terminating an employment
contract under the doctrine of employmentat-will will result in injustices and courts will
challenge the doctrine = wrongful discharge
which is unjust dismissal or termination.
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Wrongful Discharge
5 Things the Court will Consider in
Wrongful Discharge tort cases:
1. Promissory Estoppel
2. Implied Contract
3. Public Policy Tort
4. Intentional infliction
5. Implied Covenant
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Promissory Estoppel
Promissory Estoppel = When a promise that was relied upon by
employee was stopped on the part of employer.
4 Elements:
1.Employer makes promise that employee reasonably expected to
rely upon
2.Employee relied upon promise of boss to do/not do something
3.Employee would not have acted/refrained from action if it had
not been for employer’s promise
4.Employee was harmed by employer’s failure to honor promise
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Implied Contract
The exception of Implied Contract occurs
when an employer has said, written or done
something that leads employee to
reasonably believe that he or she is not an
at-will employee
However, a contract can contain a disclaimer which
is a statement that holds that regardless of any
provisions or promises to the contrary an
employment-at-will situation still exists.
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Public Policy Tort
Most states now allow fired employees to
recover compensation if they can prove
the firing violated public policy.
Public policy holds that no one should be allowed
to do anything that tends to hurt the public at
large.
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Intentional Infliction/Emotional Distress
Some states allowed discharged employees to
bring a tort lawsuit against their former
employers for intentional infliction of
emotional distress.
However an employer’s conduct must be extremely
outrageous to qualify as such.
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Implied Covenant
The implied covenant principle holds that
any employment relationship is based on
an implied promise that the employer
and employee will be fair and honest
with one another.
Unlike implied contract, this covenant
exists simply because the employment
relationship exists.