Free speech in the workplace and the public-private distinction

✍ Scribed by Robert F. Ladenson

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 817 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-5249
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00152512

✦ Synopsis

In a novel entitled Scientists and Engineers: The Professional Who Are Not, I the author, Lewis V. Mclntire, paints a dismal portrait of life as an engineer in a large corporation. Characters in the novel bitterly denounce management for, among other things, favoritism, arbitrary treatment, and cheating employees out of bonuses and patents. The hero of the novel expresses the view that the only hope for scientific and technical employees lies in the formation of a powerful union. The fictional company in the novel bears a close similarity to the DuPont Corporation, for whom Mclntire worked for twelve years as a chemical engineer prior to the publication of his novel in 1971. In 1972 Mclntire was fired. 2

Mclntire sued DuPont for discharging him, but his case never came to trial: instead, it was dismissed for failure to state a cause of action. 3 Applying the common law doctrine of employment-at-will, which covers most private sector employees, the court ruled that, Mclntire's complaint against DuPont, even if true, did not constitute a basis for legal action. If Mclntire had worked for a government agency, however, rather than for DuPont, his case would not have been thrown out of court, and he might well have prevailed at the trial. Under firmly settled constitutional law, the First Amendment guarantee of free speech applies to public sector employment.