Are you an At-Will Employee?

Imagine that you are injured in a work related accident and you need a few days to recover. You file for workers' compensation benefits and figure that when your back in shape you can return to work. The next thing you know you're fired! What do you do? You hire a lawyer, believing that in America an employer should not be able to fire you for exercising your legal right to file a workers compensation claim. As the court issues its decision, you are in disbelief. The court rules that you have no legal standing and cannot sue for the employer's retaliatory firing.

You don't have to imagine such a story. In August of 1997, the above story was a reality for a Pennsylvania man. The Pennsylvania Superior court ruled that because the man was an at-will employee and was not covered by a contract (such as a union contract), the "employer may terminate an employee at any time or any reason or for no reason". According to the American Civil Liberties Union, two million "at-will-employees" are fired every year. Of those two million workers, an estimated 200,000 are fired for no reason. How can that be? Hard working, on-time, conscientious employees fired for no apparent reason?

If you think you are exempt from the whims of your company or boss, think again. Most Americans don't realize that unless you work for the government or belong to a union, under the laws of nearly all the states you are considered an "at-will-employee" and it is perfectly legal for your employer to fire you for no reason at all!

Of course there are exceptions. You may not be fired on the basis of race, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability or for trying to organize a union in your workplace. In addition, some states provide moderate protections such as wrongful termination due to whistle-blowing.

However, the only way to truly protect yourself is to join a union and work under a legally recognized contract.

Union workers are more likely than their nonunion counterparts to receive health care and pension benefits, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 1997, 86 percent of union workers in medium and large establishments had medical care benefits, compared with 74 percent of nonunion workers. Union workers also are more likely to have retirement and short- term disability benefits.

As the chart below illustrates, 90 percent of union workers have pension plans verses 76 percent of nonunion workers. Seventy-nine percent of union workers have defined-benefit retirement coverage, compared with 42 percent of nonunion workers. (Defined-benefit plans are federally insured and provide a guaranteed monthly pension amount. They are better for workers than defined-contribution plans, in which the benefit amount depends on how well the underlying investments perform. )

Union membership helps raise workers' pay and narrows the income gap that disadvantages minorities and women. Union workers earn 28 percent more than nonunion workers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Their median weekly earnings for full-time wage and salary work were $696 in 2000, compared with $542 for their nonunion counterparts.

The union wage benefit is even greater for minorities and women. Union women earn 31 percent more than nonunion women. African American union members earn 37 percent more than their nonunion counterparts and for Latino workers, the union advantage totals 55 percent.

American

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Earnings, January 2001

Source: AFL-CIO analysis of the Current Population Survey, Supplement on Displaced Workers, Job Tenure and Occupational Mobility, February 1998. Prepared by the AFL-CIO.