Expert: Michael Troy - 12/7/2009

Question
I do realize that happiness is not guaranteed.  My question connects at will employment and the Pursuit of happiness.  My theory is that by allowing at will employment or permitting bullying in the workplace, my right to the pursuit of happiness is infringed upon.  Anyone doing an excellent, valid and beneficial job should not be fired for no reason.  Would linking these 2 ideas have any impetus for legislation that would negate the at will idea?  This should not be legally overlooked.

Answer
Hi Jean,

The phrase "pursuit of happiness" appears in the Declaration of Independence.  While this was an important document in American History, it is not a component of US law.  The fact that the founding fathers believed that the pursuit of happiness was one of the liberties that governments should further does not mean any law or legal structure could be overturned on that basis.

The United States has strongly supported at-will employment since its founding.  Many founders thought that wage based employment was not very good anyway.  They felt that men should own their own businesses and that anyone employed by another was a "wage slave" who would forever be beholden to that employer.  Many of the founders envisioned a society where most men would work their own businesses (almost entirely as farmers) so that they could be free and independent.  At no time did they envision setting labor laws to require private employers to hire or retain people who they did not want to hire.

As the industrial age took hold and it became clear that most people would likely be working for large companies, and government started passing labor laws, the Courts understood the Constitution to prevent such worker rights laws from being valid.  For many years, the US Supreme Court held that the constitutional bar on impairment of contracts prevented legislatures from passing any laws which protected any sort of worker rights.  In other words, an employer's rights would be infringed if the employer does not have the right to terminate any contract the employer does not like for any reason.

The majority of the Court generally gave up this line of thought beginning in the 1930's, and now permits legislatures to pass laws restricting things like worker hours, minimum wage, non-discrimination laws, etc.

So that said, if a legislature decided to do away with at-will employment and require employers to retain employees except in cases of wrongdoing by the employee, a court would likely uphold such a law.  However, without a legislative basis passed into law, a court is going to allow at-will based employment as that has been the deeply rooted tradition in American law.  Employees are free to demand employment contracts from employers if they can bargain for one, but an employer is not bound to have any such contract if it does not wish to have one.

Sorry if this is not the answer you wanted, but I hope it helps you understand the situation.

- Mike