Legal risks and opportunities in Employment
Legal Encounter 1
After working with NewCorp for about three months, Pat was given a notice that he will be discharged in 30 days with severance pay without any indication of problem on the job. NewCorp is held liable for conducting a wrongful termination of its employee under a theory of promissory estoppels.
According to company handbook, NewCorp would notify its employee(s) of the deficiency and placed on a Corrective Action Plan for the unsatisfactory performance. NewCorp did not inform Pat what he has done wrong neither NewCorp has not given Pat any Corrective Action Plan. In this case NewCorp has breached of contract even thought it is under the statute of Employment at-Will relationships. I would suggest NewCorp to take back the notice of discharge and follow the company handbook before Pat brought suit against NewCorp for a wrongful termination. As a good example in case of Dillon v. Champion Jogbra Inc. Champion Jogbra took a step to give Dillion the impression of a job security and enjoys the attendant benefits in such an atmosphere confers. Then Champion terminate her position. Dillion then brought suit against Jogbra for wrongful termination. She claimed that Jogbra breached of contract and promissory estoppels and trial court granted Ms. Dellion appealed (Jennings, 2006, case 18.7). On top of that Pat has noticed that the NewCorp senior manager was noticeable unfriendly after knowing that Pat has been vocal at the school board meeting. Even though, the school was not related to the company, but Pat think that it might be the act of retaliation in which this manager took revenge against Pat which leads to his termination.
A company has to be mindful not to fallen into disfavor of an at-will employment relationship when terminating its employee(s) because employee can still be able to establish a claim against that company. In this case Pat Grey can still file a complaint against NewCorp for a...