For example, this Article has demonstrated how the implied obligation of good faith in contract law, applied in the
at-will employment context, can employ expansive equality principles to provide alternate remedies to at-will employees who may not be able to obtain civil rights remedies because of the onerous burdens they must satisfy in order to prevail on their civil rights claims.
(Arkansas, South Dakota, and Wisconsin are additional states that recognize the public policy exception to
at-will employment but limit recovery to contract damages.
If
at-will employment is truly more efficient than job security, changing the default rule to job security would not necessarily result in widespread adoption of a new contract term.
Rodrigues alleged that Scotts threatened to fire him if he did not submit to a nicotine test, but the court ruled that a threat to terminate
at-will employment, without more, does not constitute an actionable threat under the MCRA.
It undermines somewhat the notion that
at-will employment allows an employer to terminate for any reason or no reason at all, and Ryman cautions employers against hasty terminations without first considering the duty to act in good faith.
Employment at will is the default rule in American employment, (1) permitting either the employer or employee to terminate their relationship at any time for "good reason, bad reason, or no reason at all." (2) Yet courts have increasingly chipped away at the presumption of
at-will employment, in particular due to its often harsh and unfair impact upon employees.
of
at-will employment. (4) Many scholars have argued or assumed that
This will provide a defense to any argument that the employment policies created an implied contract that trumped
at-will employment. In addition, companies should also have employees sign a separate copy of the Anti-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Policy as well, again to avoid any claim that an employee did not know what conduct was prohibited in the workplace.
Depending on the size and number of employees, an employer should have, at least, a rudimentary employee handbook, providing notice to employees of the employer's policies and expectations and containing a disclaimer regarding
at-will employment. Employees should be given a copy of the handbook and required to sign for receipt of the handbook.
However, even in
at-will employment situations most, if not all states, have exceptions to the concept of termination by an employer for any reason or for no reason whatsoever.
At-will employment does not give license to employers to discriminate or retaliate on an otherwise impermissible basis.