Reference no: EM132190543

The Employment-at-Will Doctrine and the Tort of Unjust Termination

The Toscano v. Green Music case involves the common law doctrine of employment-at-will. The traditional rule, still followed in North Carolina is that an employment contract is terminable at will. An employer may fire an employee, or the employee may quit at any time. The contract must be honored (salary, accumulated benefits, etc.) to the point of termination, but either party may terminate at will. In the 1960s, thirteen states replaced employment at will with unjust termination. An employee could sue alleging that s/he had been unjustly fired without good cause, and if the jury agreed, got his or her job back, loss wages, and attorney fees. No state has adopted unjust termination since the early 1970s, and all but 2 of the states that adopted it have repealed it within the last 10 years. Think about the arguments for it, against it, and why the movement to unjust termination seems to have died.