Legal Risk and Opportunity in Employment

Legal Risk and Opportunity in Employment

Legal Encounter one:

Most of employees do not have written contracts that specify conditions such as the start and duration of their employment. Most of employees work at the discretion of their employers. In other words their employment works on at will condition. Exhibit 18.3 summarized the “dos” and “don’ts” of terminating employees. Recent cases have placed some restriction on the employer’s freedom to hire and fire at will and courts have been giving employees/agent the benefit of their reliance. Employees have based their protection rights on several theories, including implied contract and public policy (Jennings, 2006).

In Pat Gray’s scenario, NewCorp that hired Pat, does have a personal manual which has been provided to Pad upon his acceptance of employment. This manual indicated the process of dealing with unsatisfactory employees:

“Notice of Unsatisfactory Performance/Corrective Action Plan

If the job performance of an employee is unsatisfactory, the employee will be notified of the deficiency and placed on a corrective action plan. If the employee’s performance does not improve to a satisfactory level in the specified period of time, termination will follow” (University of Phoenix Materials: NewCorp Legal Scenarios).

“The liability of principals for the torts of agents has become a costly part of doing business” (Jennings, 2006, p725). Based on “Notice of unsatisfactory performance/corrective action plan” which provided to Pat upon his acceptance of contract, he moved all his family to Vermont relying on his contract with NewCorp. NewCorp does have liability for all expenses and all inconveniences which have been created for Pat as a result of hiring him.

“All employees are agents of the principal employer, but not all agents are employees” (Jennings, 2006, p725). The source of agency law is common law. Restatement of Agency is the reflection of common law regarding...