Read the text and decide if the statement "An employee's right to fire an employer may be limited." is True or False :Termination and "At Will"
Employment
Employment contracts are most often
used by employees to show that the employer's right to fire an employee was
limited. In most states, employment is generally considered "at
will," meaning that the employer can terminate employment (or the employee
may voluntarily leave) at any time. An employer's right to fire an employee may
be limited, however, where the employee can show that the employer entered into
either an explicit contract to retain the employee for a certain length of
time, or an "implied contract" which dictates that employment will be
terminated only for specific disciplinary reasons. For example, an
implied contract may be enforced against the employer where a policy or
handbook has been distributed to the employee, and the employee, knowing the
terms of the policy or handbook, has opted to continue working for the
employer.
Many states also recognize that a
verbal statement by an employer, such as "you'll be here as long as your
sales are above budget," may create a binding contract of
employment. The enforceability of such verbal contracts is limited,
however, by a legal doctrine known as the "statute of frauds," which
provides that any verbal agreement that cannot be carried out in less than one
year is invalid. So, in the above example, because the employee
conceivably could have fallen below budget and been fired within one year, the
agreement would be enforceable, even if the employee was not actually fired. A
verbal contract must also be specific in order to be enforceable. A
statement such as "You'll have a job here as long as you like"
generally will not be enforced.
Finally, a few states recognize an
implied contract of employment where an employer has engaged in a "course
of dealing" over a period of years, for example, by keeping employees on
as long as they maintained certain standards of performance. As a result,
an employee may claim that he or she may not be fired as long as he or she
continues to meet those standards.