Employment Decisions

Abstract

Any attempt to discuss the justice of employment decisions in one chapter suggests superficiality. Two features hopefully save this chapter from this fault. First, the topic is restricted to procedures independent of any contractual requirements such as grievance procedures; substantive issues are not discussed. The theoretical reason for ignoring procedural requirements in collective contracts is that our concern is with what is morally required independent of voluntary agreement. If a procedure can be shown to be independently morally required, that provides a good reason for including it in a contract and for criticizing contracts that do not include it. The practical reason is that most employees are not covered by collective bargaining or individual employment contracts (Snoeyenbos and Roberts 1983, 248). Most individual employment contracts are silent on procedures, and the law implies relatively few conditions. Moreover, no individual employment contracts and few collective bargaining contracts cover procedural issues of the hiring process.