Read the text and make the decisions on the questions below.

The Dangers of Firing Employees

The common law has previously maintained the right of an employer to fire an employee under something called the employment-at-will doctrine. But lately this doctrine has come under attack because of recent legal rulings. Employers can still fire people, but they may incur some expensive consequences if employees sue. California employees have won jury verdicts of $10 million and more.

In recent years, state courts in some 46 states have made it legal for employees to sue their employers for wrongful discharge. This has resulted in backlog of some 25,000 such cases. Such companies, in response, are forcing employees to sign statements saying that they can be fired at any time. Fired employees tend to sue anyway.

A different approach to such problems is to go to arbitration. In Montana, one cannot fire an employee without “just cause,” and liability awards are limited. The state also requires employers to go to outside arbitration when cases arise of alleged wrongful discharge.

In the past, more than 50 percent of all discharge cases taken to arbitration are decided against the employer (80 percent in California). Corporate personnel manuals are getting more detailed to protect against legal action. For example, the Del E. Webb Corporation stuck the word permanent from employee descriptions.

NAS Insurance Services, Inc., in California, offers insurance for companies sued for wrongful discharge. It has been estimated that only 2 out of every 1,000 employees is fired unjustly, but that amounts to some 55,000 workers a year.

2. Decision questions.

1. What are the implications for the personnel department of new legal rulings against firing for unjust cause?

2. If you were an employer, would you put more effort into screening and training employees, given these rulings? Who may benefit?

3. The trend in handling wrongful discharge cases has been to call in an arbitrator such as the ones that Montana demands. What benefits do you see from arbitration versus suing employers?

Дата добавления: 2015-08-27