Applicable Law & Principles:
”At will employment” means that the Company does not offer tenured or guaranteed employment for any period of time to any employee without an employment contract or written direction from the CEO/President.
In at will employment either the Company or the employee can terminate the employment relationship at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice.
This does not mean that employers can arbitrarily fire employees without good faith communication, fairness, and non-discriminatory practices. In fact, courts are increasingly finding for employees in litigation. Employers must demonstrate a good faith effort to correct the employee's performance or the other issues that led to employment termination. Within the at will employment law the five public policy exceptions include the following. The refusal to participate in illegal activity, the employee’s refusal to forsake the performance of an important public duty or obligation, the employee’s refusal to forego the exercise of a job-related legal right or privilege, the employee’s “whistleblowing” activity or other conduct exposing the employers wrongdoing, and the employee’s performance of an act that public policy would encourage under circumstances where retaliatory discharge is supported by evidence of employers bad faith, malice, or retaliation.
Summary of the facts:
In the case of Martin Marietta v. Lorenz, Lorenz is suing over the claim of wrongful discharge. Lorenz held a degree in advanced engineering and had at the time of employment complete all of the necessary work for a doctorate in metallurgy except his thesis. Prior to his employment with Marietta in 1972, he had been employed with Boeing Company in Washington for sixteen years working on defense and aerospace projects and specializing in fracture mechanics, which involves the study of the fracture or