Labor Laws and Employment Contracts Essay

Employment-at-will doctrine is a law that requires both the employer and the employee to either enter into a contract of employment willfully or terminate such a contract willfully. Under this law, an employer may employ an employee if the employer is willing to employ specific employees willing to accept the job under the given terms and conditions. Moreover, this doctrine allows the employer to terminate the employment contract of an employee for any reason even if it is not justified and without prior notice. Similarly, the doctrine allows the employee to terminate their contract of employment with an employer without prior notice (Mixon, 2014).



Some exceptions apply to the Employment-at-will doctrine. These exceptions include all situations in which the employment at will doctrine may not apply. The first exception to the employment-at-will doctrine is in cases where employees and employers have collective bargaining agreements. Employees who are members of the worker's unions have pre-negotiated collective bargaining agreements between the employer and the employee. These agreements stipulate the employee remunerations and increment procedure. Such agreements also outline conditions under which an employee may be discharged. The collective bargaining agreements further cover an appeal procedure through which an employee can appeal if he or she feels the termination of their employment contract was not justified under the provisions of the collective bargaining agreements (Chuff, 2014). Therefore, the employer cannot terminate an employee's employment contract unless it is justified under the collective bargaining agreement. Moreover, such an employer may not reduce the salary of the employee at will. This limits the freedom that the employment-at-will doctrine gives employers.



Besides the collective bargaining agreements, an employee may have an individual employment contract that is binding on both the employee and the employer. This individual employment contract also forms a basis for exemptions from the employment-at-will doctrine. The individual employment contract stipulates an employee's remunerations as well as the conditions under which such an employee's contract can be terminated (Butsch & Kleiner, 2011). As such, the law requires the employer to follow the provisions of the agreement. This limits the powers of an employer to terminate the employment contract of an employee willfully unless the circumstance of such a termination is provided for under the terms of employment.



Another exemption to the employment at will doctrine is in the statutory protection. Some state and federal laws protect employees from discrimination at the point of both hiring and termination of the employment contracts. There are several categories of protections under both state and federal laws. These include race, gender, religion, the status of the family, disability, sexual orientation, nationality and age among other factors (Butsch & Kleiner, 2011). These statutory exemptions limit the ability of an employer to fire an employee unless such an employer can demonstrate that such firing in no way related to any form of discrimination. Therefore, this protection limits the employer's ability to fire an employee that the doctrine of employment at will gives such an employer.



Implied contracts also form a basis for exemptions for the employment at will doctrine. Implied contracts cover the employment policies in the organization that describes the process of employment as well as situations that may lead to the termination of such employment opportunities. Whereas it may not be a written contract between the employer and the employee, such policies form an implied contract between the employer and the employee. The implied contracts protect the employee against unjustified termination of employment contracts and hence limit the freedom of employment terminations as provided for by the doctrine of employment at will.



Labor laws in the US holds that termination of an employee's contract of employment must have justifiable reasons. Therefore, an employee who feels that his or her termination was not justified may file a lawsuit to challenge such termination under the covenant of good…