Ending Employment Relationships
Legal Standards Governing Terminating Individuals The term “at-will employment” which has played a significant role in the history of American legal standards governing terminating individuals states that an employee can be fired by an employer “at any time without notice and with or without a reason” (Zahr et al., 2016, p. 57). Nowadays, there are a number of exceptions that can be used to the employment-at-will under the American legal system. In addition, there are statutes which protect employees from the violations of their rights during the process of termination. American concept of “at-will employment” leaves much room for violations and discriminations. For this reason, there are a number of exceptions to it which can be divided into two categories: exceptions stipulated by statutory laws and ones implemented by court decisions (Zahr et al., 2016, p. 57). One of the most important exceptions is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which “prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin (Zahr et al., 2016, p. 58)”. The employees cannot also be terminated if they file complains about the company’s polices. There are also whistleblowing laws. The first word from the name of the term “can be defined as the release of information by a member or former member of an organization that is evidence of illegal and/or immoral conduct in the organization or conduct of the organization that is not in the public interest (Zahr et al., 2016, p. 58)”. Employee Policies and Handbook Exceptions also play a significant role among the legal standards governing terminating individuals. The employees are aware of the behavior which can lead to termination. The Doctrine of Prior Notification and the Termination of an Employment Contract also serve to protect the rights of the employees.
Legal Standards Governing Terminating Individuals When Downsizing Downsizing or workforce reduction is a mass termination organized to reduce costs. HR managers and employees should be fully aware of the legal
standards governing terminating individuals when downsizing because various violations are possible during this process. The unemployment is done on an at-will employment basis which means that an individual can be fired is this is not forbidden by the exceptions to this law. However, there are some aspects that should be taken into consideration during workforce reduction. Some of them are race, national origin, religion, gender, age,
and some other factors including disability. For example, the H-1B status of an employee should be taken into consideration because “when an employer terminates an H-1B employee prior to the expiration date of the employee's H-1B status, DOL considers this action to be a form of benching the employee unless/until the employer has taken the following steps to effectuate a "bona fide" termination” (Odin, Feldman & Pittleman, 2016). In addition, according to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act), companies composed of more than …
