Term Paper on "What Rights and Obligations Do Employees Have in the Workplace"

Term Paper 7 pages (2010 words) Sources: 1+ Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Ethics and Reality in the Debate Over Employee Rights

Current debates over employee rights raise numerous questions that affect nearly every facet of our society. The modern world, many would argue, is fundamentally different from the world in which the traditional common law relationships were formulated. Technology and industry have transformed beyond recognition age-old concepts of personal and economic responsibility. Growing diversity, and respect for that diversity, have forever changed expectations, and created new demands and mandates. Personal freedoms cannot be sacrificed in the name of personal gain. All is public in some sense or other. The most private corporation is in reality a quasi-public entity that works as much for the good of the larger society a sit does for its own ends. Nonetheless, much of this new thinking is firmly grounded in ancient ideas. The fundamental building blocks of the American Republic - the respect for personal liberty, the sacrosanctity of private property, and the right to "pursue happiness" - inform and shape the present arguments as surely as they underlie the traditional assumptions. To argue, as many now do, that individual rights and freedoms are best served by the increasing regulation of private businesses is to proclaim, a priori, that these fundamental principles still pertain. With this in mind, the issue becomes complex. Personal choices balance or counterbalance the choices of large, faceless corporations and vast and powerful government institutions. The legal profession, the political establishment, and the business community all hold stakes in the eventual outcome. Should the "At Will" doctrine be abolished, or does that doctrine remain the best answer to current as well as prior economic realities? Do gross abuses by many in private industry justify the alteration of a system that has existed for centuries?

The answer is a question of ethics, of what matter most to us today, those who live and work in the modern day United States.

A major argument against the "At Will" doctrine centers on the sheer arbitrariness of such a concept. The "At Will" doctrine is exactly what it says - the idea that an employer may terminate an employee's employment "at will." This means, in the words of Payne v. Western & Atlantic Railroad that,

M]en must be left, without interference to buy and sell where they please, and to discharge or retain employees at will for good cause, or for no cause, or even for bad cause without thereby being guilty of an unlawful act per se. It is a right which an employee may exercise in the same way, to the same extent, for the same cause or want of cause of the employer.

Within an economic system such as that of the United States, individual employers must be free to hire and fire as they fit. Concomitantly, those whom they hire and fire agree to be employed under similar conditions, that is to say, they may accept a job at will, and they may also leave that job at will. The notion developed out of traditional employment practices that were enshrined in the common law, traditions that carried over into the industrial age. Such practices reflect both the need of the employer to find the best and most qualified workers, and the need of those in search of work to find the best and most remunerative employers. On the surface, the system appears to be one of mutual consent and mutual benefit. It also accords well with basic American concepts of what constitutes a "good" society. Within the American ethos, the freedom to choose one's manner and place of work is as fundamental a freedom as the right to speak one's mind or choose one's religion.

Still, it can easily be argued that the arrangement is not genuinely equal. Though apparently consenting and mutual, what the employee is actually agreeing to can hardly be described as a condition that places him or her on an equal footing with his or her employer. In many workplaces, employees are forced to submit to the whims of their employers, to behave in a manner contrary to their own inclinations, to restrain themselves from criticism - even to violate their understanding of the original terms of employment by, say, performing work for which they were not hired, or working extra hours, or accepting cuts in pay, loss of vacation time, etc. Managers may engage in verbal cruelty, favor certain workers over others, or do any number of things that not only are unfair, but may not be justified under any rational circumstances other than in the name of the absolute right of the individual in charge to control her or his employees. In short, by permitting employers the right to arbitrarily dismiss their employees they are giving to those employers an absolute right which most workers simply do not possess. The right to quit "at will" simply does not balance the employer's right to absolute submission and obedience backed up by the right of summary dismissal:

Arbitrary treatment of employees extends prerogatives to managers that are not equally available to employees, and such treatment may unduly interfere with a fired employee's prospects for future employment if that employee has no avenue for defense or appeal. This is also sometimes true when am employee quits without notice or good reason. Arbitrary treatment of employees or employers therefore violates the spirit of EAW - that of protecting the freedom of both the employees and employers.

EAW, or Employment at will, is obviously not always as equal as it appears.

On the level of basic American values, those embodied in the United States Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and other documents, Employment at Will would seem to speak to larger social and culturally concerns. Equity is essentially about fair treatment, beliefs that, in the case of employment, have been further enshrined in the National Labor Relations Act of 1934 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The first act lays out the rules for collective bargaining, while the second prohibits discrimination in hiring on the basis of race, sex, religion, or national origin.

Each of these enactments represents a clear attempt to use the law to ensure fair treatment in the workplace. Thus, the traditional common law notion of the employer's absolute control over the working environment, and the supposed non-interference inherent in "At Will," is broken. Much of the rationale behind these laws revolves also around the concept of due process. In virtually every other sphere of American life, due process is a fundamental aspect of social and legal relations. Collective bargaining, combined with the right of unions to organize, ensures that workers possess the power to stand up for their rights as employees. Unions have long been powerful advocates for increased wages and improved labor conditions. The Civil Rights Act reflects an equally strong belief in equality of opportunity. The mechanism of the law is used to make certain that qualified applicants for jobs are not turned away simply because an employer does not like their physical appearance, ethnic origin, or religious beliefs. In each of these instances, the greater good of society takes precedence over the supposed absolute rights of the employer or the privacy of their contractual "At Will" employer/employee relationship. In order to prevent the violation of these rights, the law establishes that due process must apply in these examples as it does in other spheres of American life. Indeed, due process is fully available to the public employee, but not to the private.

The public employee cannot be fired "at will," the party for which she or he works being considered the public, the work being performed being considered to benefit the public at large.

Still, it has been claimed that any attempt to dispense with Employment at Will, would constitute undue government interference in matters that are best left to private discretion. The "public good" - a major force behind most regulatory schemes, is not always as obvious to those on different sides of the argument. The belief that equality in American society is more easily accomplished through government interference is not so clear to those who look at the history of such laws, and at the nature of the American economic system. The American economy, like the American state, is based on the notion of freedom. Freedom of choice and freedom of association are its central tenets. The entrepreneur decides what work she will perform, much as the potential employee decides what work he will perform, and with whom and where. Those who oppose changing the system contend that those involved in business are better informed about the realities of the business world than those whose business is government. Workers "on the ground" can negotiate such arrangements as they fit with their employers. The current system affords the worker three significant opportunities - opportunities for monitoring behavior, for controlling reputational losses, and risk diversification - choices that would be curtailed by stricter government regulation.

In other words, the employee… READ MORE

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