Employment At Will-Doctrine Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Employment At Will-Doctrine - Research Paper Example The assumption in this doctrine is that the employee only supplies the labor and has no legal interest in the business enterprise other than to be paid for the labor offered while the employer has the sole right to determine everything on how the enterprise operates or it is run. The American labor law has however been in a confused mode as in certain instances; there courts and the legislature develop some rules to limit the employers’ absolutism over his employees while at the same time adhering to the employment at will doctrine. Therefore, the premise of the doctrine is that the employer has the sovereignty over the rights of the employees except to the extent it has expressly granted those rights and expresses as well as implements the subordination of workers to the persons who have control over the business enterprise. In the absence of a provision protecting the employee from such acts in the employment contract, workers are subordinate and their terms and conditions o f employment can be changed in any way and at any time meaning they can be dismissed without reason or notice. Due to the ambivalence of the employment at will doctrine, the courts have made decisions to limit its scope in order to provide protection to employees who may be unfairly dismissed or unjustly discharged from employment. One way the courts have diminished the scope of employment at will doctrine is to allow an employee discharged from employment to sue in tort rather than in contract as held in Petermann v. Intl Bhd. of Teamsters, Local 396, 344 P.2d 25 (Cal. Dist. Ct. App. 1959). In this case, the California court held that the discharging of an employee along the doctrine because he refused to commit perjury was contrary to public policy and therefore the employee could sue the employer for emotional distress, loss of income as well as punitive damages. Limitations on employment at will doctrine has also