Assignment 2 Law and Ethics

Assignment 1: Employment-At-Will Doctrine

Arla R. Payne

Michelle Olmstead, Professor of Law

Law, Ethics & Corp. Governance

April 28, 2013

Scenario #1

Employment at will is a doctrine of American law that defines an employment relationship in which either party can break the relationship with no liability, provided there was no express contract for a definite term governing the employment relationship and that the employer does not belong to a collective bargaining group (i.e., has not recognized a union). Under this legal Doctrine, any hiring is presumed to be “at will”; that is the employer is free to discharge Individuals for good cause or bad cause or no cause at all. The employee is also equally free to quit strike or otherwise cease work. As an employer they also have the same right to terminate an employee.

After a couple months of training and help the employee is still unable to complete her duties, only one option is left for the employer which would be to terminate the employee. After review of the employment-at-will doctrine the employer has the right to terminate the employee at any time. In light of the fact that the employee cannot perform the duties she was initially hired for, the employer has the legal right to find a qualified replacement employee. The accounting firm has proved that the employee was unable to complete her required duties even after months of being trained; therefore, the employer has legal rights to terminate the employee. The employee has no grounds to sue the employer when she is the cause of the termination, and if the employer did everything in their power to train and help the employee but, in the end she was not qualified for the position she must go. The company should have made sure that the employee had all the skills or at least most of the skills needed to complete the required daily duties before the hiring process.

Scenario #2

. The employer has the right to terminate an employee at any time...