DL Open Thread: Sunday, December 18, 2022
Most Fired Workers Lost Their Jobs For No Good Reason Last Year:
These conditions are perhaps why 2022 was a big year for unionization. Unions won more elections than they have in 20 years, with employee rights and job security being the second and third reasons for labor organizing. But unions aren’t the only route to a just cause standard.
New York City councilmember Tiffany Caban has introduced a bill to provide just cause protections to all city employees, including private sector and non-union workers. She’s not alone: For the first time in decades, a mass worker-driven movement to replace at-will employment with just cause protections has erupted. Advocates are calling for legislation to be enacted on the local, state, and federal level to include key protections such as requiring employers to present documented reasons for firing; giving fair notice to workers about workplace problems and allowing time to improve; restricting electronic monitoring; guaranteeing severance pay; and ensuring forced arbitration requirements do not interfere with workers’ rights.
That is what must happen in Delaware. We are an at-will state. We throw millions at companies who fire workers w/o just cause. Hey, Pete & Val did that in Dover. Remember what happened to the guy who tried to organize legislative employees?
As a newly-minted dues-paying member of the Working Families Party, I’m asking for someone, anyone, in the General Assembly to introduce legislation ending Delaware’s status as an at-will state. I will do all I can, as will those who generally care about working families, to push for passage of such a bill. I remember that Rep. Al O. Plant used to introduce the bill back in the ’80’s, but I can’t recall whether it’s been introduced since then. The time is right, the conditions are right. Let’s see which D legislators are right, and which ones mark themselves for replacement. Justice for workers. Right on the issue, right on the politics.
On A Related Note: Companies Fire Workers During Holiday Season Even Though They Don’t Have To:
After corporations complained of labor shortages through 2021 and 2022, several companies have shed workers in mass layoffs as 2022 comes to a close.
Job cuts in the US have risen this year, with a 6% increase for the first 11 months of 2022 in comparison to last year. In 2021, 320,173 of them had been announced, though job cuts are lower in the past two years than in the previous few decades.
“These companies are all making money. They are doing it because other companies are doing it,” said Stanford Graduate School of Business Prof Jeffrey Pfeffer on the recent trend of tech companies shedding employees.
“Layoffs often do not cut costs, as there are many instances of laid-off employees being hired back as contractors, with companies paying the contracting firm. Layoffs often do not increase stock prices, in part because layoffs can signal that a company is having difficulty. Layoffs do not increase productivity. Layoffs do not solve what is often the underlying problem, which is often an ineffective strategy, a loss of market share or too little revenue. Layoffs are basically a bad decision,” Pfeffer added.
What do you want to talk about?
As much as my sympathies are with the workers, I don’t think ending at-will as a good idea. The other side of the at-will doctrine is that YOU can quit at any time for any reason. I’ve been on both sides of that equation (quitting, and being laid off) and I have to say I came out ahead every time.
I’d rather empower workers through support for child care, higher minimum wage, prohibitions on erratic scheduling, increased support for career-advancing education, tightening the WARN Act, among other things. Make it easier to quit a bad employer, or to survive a bad layoff. Keep that quits rate permanently higher.
That said, I’ve often thought employers should be required to give you a truthful reason for termination and be liable for damages if the reason is false.