Question

You friend owns a business and tells you that she has never been sued by a former employee even though she has terminated several. When you ask her why she thinks this is the case, she answers that when she fires someone she tells him/her that they will not get their final paycheck nor be able to retrieve their personal belongings from their work areas unless they sign a “Waiver and Release” of all claims against her and the company. She says that all her terminated employees sign this document and so if anyone ever sue her over the termination she is confident that she can simply enforce the “Waiver and Release” against that person. Do you think she is correct? Why or why not?

Answer 1

In my views, the waiver and release practice is quite immoral and unethical, This is pure blackmailing where the employee is asked to sign the waiver document to get their final pay check cleared by the company. The employees are not signing the waiver document by their will but under the pressure of getting their final pay check cleared.

If the subject is quite adamant of having a free hand in hiring and firing employees, she can incorporate the employment at will clause in the hiring policy of her company. Employment at-will is the policy which states that the company or the employer can terminate any employee at any time if the employee was hired with employment at will clause. The termination will have no specific reason or warning, stated by the employer. On similar lines, the employee will also have the same rights and will have the privilege to quit the company any time without stating any specific reason for the same, and without serving any notice period.

In my views, employment at will is more ethical than the waiver and release practice. This is so because employment at-will has discretion of both employer as well as employee. Hence it can be considered fair practice for both the involved parties.