At Will Employment
At Will Employment Definition
At will employment is also called employment at will and hired
at will. All terms mean that employment is presumed to be voluntary
and indefinite for both employees and employers, under the Doctrine of
Employment at Will.
Grammatically speaking, the term at will should
be hyphenated, as in at-will employment. However, because not
everybody knows that, we omit the hyphen to make it easier for visitors
to find this article in a Web search.
In other words, at will employment means that employees may generally quit their
jobs at anytime and for any, no or even unfair reasons.
By the same token, employers may generally fire or layoff employees
at anytime and for any, no or even unfair reasons. (That's the inference
of the saying, "I serve at the pleasure of the board of directors.")
However, employers are limited by exceptions, which
are noted on the next page.
At will employment also means that employers may decline to hire job
candidates for any, no or even unfair reasons, except for those noted on
the next page.
All states enforce at will employment
to some degree. To ensure that at will employees know their employment
is indefinite and to help avoid employee lawsuits, employers may legitimately
ask employees to sign contracts or agreements that
document and enforce the terms of at will employment.
Alternately or additionally, employers may document the terms of at will
employment in policy manuals or similar documents, and then ask employees
to sign contracts or agreements acknowledging that they've received, read,
understand and will adhere to the terms. Many states consider policy manuals
and similar documents to be enforceable, implied
contracts for both employers and employees.
Employers and employees may legitimately waive certain
at will employment rights through contracts and agreements. For example,
union-employer collective
bargaining agreements might stipulate the terms and conditions under
which employers may and may not discharge union employees.
The next page explains the Doctrine of Employment at Will and state exceptions
that render it inapplicable.
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