Do employers have actual rights? Laws covering the workplace typically grant employees rights and employers responsibilities. But, shouldn’t employers have rights as well?
Employment attorney and author Jonathan T. Hyman believes so. In his book The Employer Bill of Rights: A Manager’s Guide to WorkPlace Law, he begins by listing 10 rights that employers should have:
To keep reading, click here: Employers Should Have a Bill of Rights; A manager’s Guide to Work Place Law
While I understand your recommendation of using an employment attorney–I hope that those attorneys aren’t constantly insisting on what I call the “extreme defensible position.” A few years back after terminating an employee for cause, genius HR attorney said that we could not fill the (now vacant) role–because ex employee might sue. With my mouth hanging open I had a conversation with our in-house counsel–who remedied the situation and we filled the position.
Perhaps I should have clarified that I meant you should hire a good attorney. 🙂
Employers DO have most of the rights you mentioned, with some exceptions – they just sometimes have to prove that they are not using that right to cover for an illegal activity or that their particular behavior does not fall into the exception.
I’ll point out that anyone can sue anyone else for almost anything. Individuals rarely get sued unless they are wealthy or high profile, as the suers are looking for deep pockets. But, businesses are seen differently, and thus they are more likely to face suits and legal complaints than individuals.
I’ll just point out that there is a reason why tort reform still managers to get people riled up – anyone who is paying attention knows that frivolous lawsuits are still more common than they should be. I’m not talking about the crazy urban legends. But, the fact that they are so easily believed is PARTLY due to the fact that a lot of really poor suits (and complaints to various regulatory agencies) get filed. That’s not a comment on the solutions that have been proposed – as always there are lots of politics around that.
I have no interest in reading this book, and am sick to death of employer-side lawyers who wine constantly about how they have the short end of the stick in the employment relationship. It is simply not true.
Based on the examples you give in your article, what Hyman wants is not just having those rights, most of which employers do in fact have, but the right to have those rights AND never have to defend their exercise to anyone, ever. He wants the right to never be sued. This is absurd on its face and is not something that any person or entity in the US has in regards to any right granted them by law.