It's Legal to Make Employees Work During a Tornado

Corporations Have Prevented a "Just Cause" Exception to the "At Will" Rule

The dead are still being counted at the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory after a devastating earthquake. Media reports suggest that the employer threatened to fire any employee who tried to leave the premises to escape the tornado.

If true, such an order was likely legal.

As workers’ power and rights have eroded over the past generation, many employers seek to manage through a culture of fear and intimidation, a strategy within the bounds of a weakened system of laws. In the absence of a written agreement (usually with a union) an employee can generally be dismissed at any time for any reason.

I commend the work of Raise the Floor, a Chicago organization that deals with these issues and attempts to improve working conditions for low-wage workers.

This “at-will” employment relationship has exceptions, all of which have eroded during the Rehnquist and Roberts Courts. Many believe (and I am among them) that the Court may once again embrace the reasoning from Lochner v. New York w…