Employment-at-Will: Does It Protect Employers from Wrongful Termination Allegations?

You may have heard that most employment is at-will, but what does that mean? If you employ your workers “at-will”, does that mean you can fire them whenever you want? Does invoking the doctrine of employment-at-will protect you from wrongful termination suits?

We will explore the statutory exceptions and contractual provisions that seem to undermine employment-at-will to give you clarity and guidance on an often-misunderstood principle of employment law.

Many employers make the mistake of assuming that because they hired an employee “at-will” that terminating that employee will be a done deal—and they often end up defending a wrongful termination claim. Other employers may hold onto employees who are not performing or who may even undermine company goals and safety, because they think that terminating them will automatically result in a multi-million-dollar lawsuit.

Neither of those assumptions is necessarily true! So what’s an employer to do?This event will help you gain some insight into how to navigate your relationship with your employees, particularly, how and when you can create and preserve an employment-at-will relationship and protect yourself from wrongful termination lawsuits.

Course Outline:

• Defining Employment-at-will;
• Identifying situations falling outside of employment-at-will;
• Identifying exceptions to employment-at-will;
• Anti-Discrimination laws and employment-at-will;
• Rights and obligations of employers and employees;
• Public Policy;
• Statutory Exceptions;
• Employment Agreements, Disclaimers and Employee Handbooks
• The NLRB and disclaimers;
• Common Mis-Conceptions;
• Wrongful Discharge;
• Scope of Employment-at-will;
• Case examples