Assignment 1: Employment-at-Will Doctrine Essay

Words: 2100
Pages: 9

Assignment 1: Employment-At-Will Doctrine
Ian Keller
Strayer University
Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance
LEG 500
Professor Joyce Weddle
April 21st, 2013

Introduction Jennifer is a recent college graduate who has been hired by an accounting firm. In the short time she has been employed with the firm she has discovered a number of behaviors she feels could be inappropriate regarding the employment-at-will doctrine as well as some liabilities with the employer. She has brought this up only because she feels obligated to report the behaviors’ in which she has witnessed and wants to ensure she won’t be held liable for not informing the management team (LEG 500 - Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance, 2012). Jennifer identified four
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Another issue with this employee is she talks to her co-workers during lunch breaks and sometimes during regular work hours, encouraging them to organize and form a union to “protect themselves” (LEG 500 - Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance, 2012). The company has to be careful in this situation because an employee does have the right to observe religious holidays. The behavioral issue here is the blatant disregard for the company and fellow colleagues. The management team announced that any time off during this period would require prior approval from the management and due to the fact the employee used the religious holiday as her excuse to justify her actions, the actions went against management direction so at a minimum the employee should be reprimanded and written-up. More than likely if she had used the direction recommended by the company if they needed time off during this time, the management team would have more than likely approved her request and then all would have been fine but it appeared the employee intentionally disobeyed the policy and used her religion as a justifiable excuse. As far as the discussion she’s making with other employee’s concerning the union implementation as long as she’s having these discussions during non-paid breaks, during non-paid lunch or after working hours she is not in violation of any policies, laws or regulations. In fact, in 1935