Employee Rights and Responsibilities

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Employee Rights and Responsibilities

• Mgmt 621
• Contemporary Ethical Issues in Management
• Jeffery D. Smith

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EMPLOYMENT AT WILL (EAW) Employers have the
right to hire, fire, promote, and demote whomever
and whenever they please so long as employees are
not covered by union agreement, legal statute,
public policy, or employment contract An "at
will" employee can be dismissed for good cause,
no cause, or even for bad cause so long as their
dismissal is not governed by union agreement,
legal statute, public policy, or employment
contract.
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ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF EAW PROPERTY
RIGHTSEQUAL RIGHTS TO EMPLOYERS EMPLOYEES
ACCEPT THEIR AT WILL STATUS PRODUCTIVITY/EFFICI
ENCY
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• The Due Process Objection to EAW
• Due process involves an entitlement to fair
  procedures and to reliable, justificatory
  evidence.
• Due process is a moral requirement for any
  institution that exercises disproportionate power
  over the livelihood, welfare, and/or rights of
  individuals.
• Corporations and their managerial agents exercise
  disproportionate power over employees.
• Therefore, it is a moral requirement of
  corporations that they offer due process to their
  employees.
• Patricia Werhane, The Right to Due Process, pp.
  136-41.

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• The requirement of due process is one of the
  conditions of the moral acceptability of those
  institutions that give some people power to
  control or intervene in the lives of others.
• Thomas Scanlon

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?Clear standards of performance ?Performance
reviews ?Documentation procedures ?Probationary
periods ?Appeal procedures ?Internal review of
management
Due Process
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DUE PROCESS PARTICIPATION involvement in
decision making expression of interests teamwork/d
ialogue HEALTH/SAFETY information regarding
health/safety risks consent employer due
diligence PRIVACY information regarding
testing just or probable cause fair testing
procedures MEANINGFUL WORK ASSOCIATION EQUAL
OPPORTUNITY
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EMPLOYEE RESPONSIBILITIES
trust loyalty confidentiality job-related
obedience performance professionalism public
interest
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STANDARDS FOR JUSTIFIED WHISTLEBLOWING Norman
Bowie, Business Ethics, 1982, pp. 140-3. 1.
motivated by the prevention of a serious danger
or threat that unnecessarily harms the public
2. exhaust all available internal channels
for rectifying the danger or threat 3.
reasonable evidence of intentional wrongdoing
leading to the existence of a serious danger or
threat 4. a careful analysis of the existence
of a serious danger or threat 5. accordance
with the responsibilities to expose ethical
wrongdoing 6. reasonable success in
preventing unnecessary harm to others