Solutions to Case Studies and Questions

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CHAPTER 1

Human Resources and the Law

Solutions to Case Studies and Questions Case 1.1 The Discharged Executive The discharged executive is an employee-at-will. Accordingly, there is little exposure to a wrongful discharge lawsuit, unless any of the verbal assurances made to the prospective plaintiff were made in writing or incorporated in a written agreement. The employer does have potential exposure to a complaint of age discrimination since the complainant is a member of a protected class. There is also potential for a claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act, since the employer knew that complainant had health issues and allegedly accommodated him. However, the burden is on the complainant to provide evidence of an ADA violation.Case 1.2 The Injured Driver The complainant has a strong case. The employer is probably in violation of the state workers’ compensation statute by failing to cover the complainant, and may be liable for penalties under that statute whether the failure to cover complainant was intentional or not. The complainant is likely to argue that he was (Human Resources Law 5e John Remington, Richard Heiser, Cyrus Smythe, Kenneth Sovereign) (Solution Manual all Chapters) 1 / 4

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1-2 constructively discharged for filing a workers compensation claim, a public policy claim that, if established in court, would override “employment at will.”

Case 1.3 The Disgruntled Secretary The complainant would argue that the employer’s handbook was a contract and that she was, therefore, not an employee at will. A handbook may be deemed by a court to be an implied contract; where there is evidence that the complainant accepted employment in consideration of the provisions of a handbook. Both the flex-time provision and the just cause provision are problematic. One implies a guarantee of flexible working hours, while the latter implies due process protections in termination. The employer should have eliminated the just cause provision from the handbook or, at the very least, included an employment at will provision.

Questions for Discussion

• The growth of cities, both from immigration and the rural-urban shift,

provided a cheap, unskilled supply of labor for new and developing industrial employers. Scientific management (Taylor) changed the production process, de-skilling work and making employers less dependent upon skilled workers, and making it easier to replace existing workers.

2. Progressive Era reforms included: child labor laws, women’s protective

legislation limiting strenuous work and hours, minimum wage legislation 2 / 4

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1-3 for women, workers compensation insurance, and workplace safety regulation.

• Employment-at-will-—Various definitions including the proposition that

employment is an arms’ length transaction with either the employee or employer permitted to terminate the relationship at any time without cause or justification. Given the employer’s apparent superior position, particularly in unskilled employment or when unemployment is high, there is significant opportunity for the employer to abuse its superior position.

• Just cause provisions in contracts of employment or in handbooks require

the employer to justify and possibly defend its termination decisions either in court or before a neutral arbitrator.

• Whistle-blower statutes are designed to protect employees from

retaliation for reporting employer wrongdoing, and are deemed to be in the interest of the public.

• Retaliatory discharge is a term referring to an employee who has been

terminated in retaliation for engaging in a lawful practice not approved of by the employer.

• The intent of wrongful discharge statutes is to eliminate the common law

doctrine of employment-at-will. Both the states and the federal government have been reluctant to adopt such statutes, because they favor voluntary (contractual), over mandatory (legislated), regulation of the workplace. Indeed, the U.S. Constitution restricts the federal government to regulating interstate commerce.

• Collective (bargaining) contracts are more common than individual

contracts because the former are protected by national labor policy through the provisions of the National Labor Relations Act. Under this 3 / 4

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1-4 statute, employers can be compelled to negotiate collective contracts, while there is no such compulsion to negotiate individual contracts with employees.

• An implied contract of employment is likely to be found where an

employer provides written guarantees of the terms and/or duration of employment, or where such guarantees are included in an employer’s handbook.

• The Pendleton Act was intended to eliminate excessive patronage

appointments in public service and provide for career employment opportunities.

• Public employees were excluded from the National Labor Relations Act in

1935 due to the Doctrine of Sovereignty and the fact that public employment was only a small fraction of total employment in 1935.

• Public employees enjoy limited property rights to their jobs under the due

process provisions of the

fourth amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

• An interrogatory is a written question put to a prospective witness in a

lawsuit. Interrogatories are designed to facilitate pre-trial discovery.

• Wrongful discharge suits are most likely to be filed in state courts.
• A subpoena duces tecum requires the individual served to appear at a

court, or arbitration hearing, and provide certain documents described in the subpoena.

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