Even with “employment-at-will”? protections, problems can arise when terminating employees.
Employers that take the “employment-at-will” concept too literally can be looking at potential legal difficulties. If a complaint is brought to court then a human factor from judges and juries come into play. The human factor can eliminate the “black and whiteness” of the employment-at-will concept and put you in danger of losing a large lawsuit.
Employment Law Attorney Jonathan Segal suggests employers follow these guidelines to protect themselves from the human factor of employee terminations:
Use progressive discipline
Use the same person who hired to fire
Drop problem workers in the first 90 days
When you document, cite specifics
Avoid absolutes, but have absolute reasons for termination
Do not list all of the little things
Do not describe a problem worker in medical terms
Wal-Mart appears in the news again, this time in a more positive light in the New York Times.
In the article “FLY ON THE WAL”, Charles Platt goes under cover to find out what Wal-Mart is doing that is keeping their growth increasing and why people continue to want to work for this behemoth. The insight and contrary opinions that Mr. Platt gives concerning Wal-Mart’s continued employment law plight is refreshing. There are no “big labor” complaints or threats here, only one man’s personal experience working undercover for Wal-Mart.
Mr. Platt does a very good job defending Wal-Mart’s driving forces, but in that he also explains some basic economic principles that our country is founded on. Too many people, mostly our politicians, forget these basic principles, and since Mr. Platt did such a good job explaining them, I quote him here:
“I found myself reaching an inescapable conclusion. Low wages are not a Wal-Mart problem. They are an industry-wide problem, afflicting all unskilled entry-level jobs, and the reason should be obvious.
In our free-enterprise system, employees are valued largely in terms of what they can do. This is why teenagers fresh out of high school often go to vocational training institutes to become auto mechanics or electricians. They understand a basic principle that seems to elude social commentators, politicians and union organizers. If you want better pay, you need to learn skills that are in demand.
The blunt tools of legislation or union power can force a corporation to pay higher wages, but if employees don’t create an equal amount of additional value, there’s no net gain. All other factors remaining equal, the store will have to charge higher prices for its merchandise, and its competitive position will suffer.”
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