Avoiding Wrongful Employee Terminations

Assignment 4
Avoiding Wrongful Employee Terminations

In the United States, wrongful termination means to be discharged from the duty by
the employer with no specific or legal reasoning ("Wrongful Termination - FindLaw", 2019).
The wrongful termination of employees from their job might constitute a breach of the
federal anti-discrimination laws, as per the EEOC. The Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission is commissioned by the United States federal government to take care of the
discrimination at the workplace based on caste, creed color, race, gender or disability and to
implement the anti-discrimination laws. Further, it is also unlawful to terminate employment
as a retaliation for a legal complaint filed by an employee regarding a discrimination faced at
the workplace, or because the employee decided to whistle blow a wrong practice being
conducted at the organization. (Tomlinson & Bockanic, 2009) The paper intends to explore
the wrongful termination at workplace and the ways to avoid them.
Constructive discharge is a reformed way of implementing the wrongful termination
of an employee. (Sanchez, 2015) The constructive dismissal is done when instead of
terminating the employment of an employee, the employer creates such a hostile environment
for the employee that he or she has no other rational option left for the employee and he or
she has to voluntarily leave the organization. ("Constructive Dismissal and Wrongful
Termination - FindLaw", 2019) In doing so, the employer might have breached the
employment laws or policies by cornering the employee at the workplace.
The burden of proving that constructive dismissal existed, lies with the employee in
the court. ("Constructive Discharge: Everything You Need to Know", 2019) The factors that
courts might emphasis upon to decide whether there is a presence of a claim of constructive
discharge exists are as follows:
 If the employee was coerced or required to execute an unlawful practice.
 The period that has passed between the purportedly unlawful conduct and the
employee's successive resign.

 If there existed reasonable recognition or inquiry done by the employer of the
complaint made by the employee.
 The nature of the illegal behavior displayed by the employer.
An organization can avoid claims of constructive discharge by keeping their work
environment free of intimidation, nuisance and aggression and ensuring that there exists
respect for everyone. The management can also make sure that the changes which can
influence employees are noted to them in writing and they sign the modifications done for
documentation purpose. Further, whatever changes are done are made fairly and keeping the
interest of the business in considerations, after discussing the same with the employees who
are being impacted by it. Additionally, employers should ensure that if an employee is given
another position, they should be in comparison to the duties and total pay of the previous
position. (Hesse, 2016)
At-will employment refers to the practice of an employee quitting a job at their will
for any reason, and the freedom of an employer to fire any employee for any reason
whatsoever, without recurring any legal liability. The at-will doctrine provides the employer
the liberty to alter the employment terms and conditions without providing for any notice or
reason.
In my opinion, employment-at-will is a very unfair employment practice and can
bring a great amount of biasedness in the workplace leaving the employee vulnerable. An
employer can execute this doctrine just because he or she might not like a certain employee.
Further, an employee can also leave the organization, just because he or she got a better deal
somewhere, without giving any due course of serving period or completing a project in hand,
leaving the employer helpless as no legal course of action could be taken against the same.
Even though there is a prevalence of at-will doctrine at the workplace in the United States,