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 Marion Paige (Admin) posted on Friday, September 29, 2000 - 12:14 pm
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So called "permanent" employment is legally classified as "Employment-At-Will". Legally this means that the employment contract can be terminated at any time by either party for any reason (more or less). In other words "permanent" employment is minute to minute (or second to second) and there is no contractual guarantee or implication of a long term relationship by either the employer or the employee.
The Republican party has made it it's mission in life to preserve employment-at-will and to protect the employer's right to fire employees-at-will at any time for any reason (the federal government only requires that if an employer is going to fire a lot of employees-at-will, that it give legal notice in advance). As far as we know, every Court in the country has refused to allow statements in employment handbooks and/or oral promises by the employer to be used to transform employment-at-will into employment for a specified duration (i.e to transform the employment relationship from being at-will into the employment being a property interest).
Note: An Idiot employer on Long Island once promised to pay new hires $5,000 a year as a signing bonus. The $5,000 was to be reduced by a certain percentage a year until it became zero. It was argued in court that it would take more than 200+ years for that $5,000 to become zero and that therefore the employment was not at-will and the employment was therefore for a specified duration and a "property interest". A federal judge refused to allow this argument and held that even with the promise of money for 200+ years the employment was still at-will. This is typical of courts in the US, employment-at-will is a US institution, it is sealed in stone and the US is the only major industrialized county in which the majority of workers are employees-at-will.
On the other hand, if you have a contract to work for a specified duration or you are a government worker, your job is considered a "property interest". What this means is that your job is property (something you own) and in the US no one can take something you own without first according you "due process of law".
Temps are employees-at-will just like "permanent" employees, both types of employement are minute to minute and there is no implied guarantee of long-term employment. Permanent employees are merely suffering from a grand delusion whereas Temps know that they may not have a job tomorrow. Health benefits etc are merely part of the compensation (and should be taxed as such). I doubt that anyone would say that a permanent secretary making $12.00 per hour with benefits is better off than a temp making $50.00 per hour with no benefits. The fact is that TEMPS and Consultants are subsidizing "permanent" employees because "permanent" employees get compensated in the form of health benefits etc and aren't taxed on that added compensation.
A respected business magazine once praised Intel as a kick-ass company that was managed well and it cited the fact that the "barrier to entry" for any new company attempting to compete with Intel was "HUGE". The "barrier to entry" for competing with a temp agency is $95.00. You can create a LLC right now and call yourself a temp agency by clicking on this link CLICK HERE |
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