Home » Blog » Limited Job Tenure Protection for Long Term Non-Union Employees?

Should a non-union medium to large company have a program that grants  some limited job protection to its employees that have say, ten or more years at the company, and have met a certain minimum level of good performance during this time?  This seems like it would be a benefit to the company and its employees.  The benefit to the company would be that it encourages long term employees and encourages the employees to be good employees.  Tenure (job protection) would only be granted by the employer after the ten years and would be discretionary with the employer unless the failure to grant it was discriminatory or in bad faith.  After the granting of “tenure”, then the employee could not be fired except for business necessity or good cause.  Good cause would have a definition and have the right to a hearing and a simple procedure to be followed for a “cause termination” and a chance to have an arbitration if there was a disagreement.  This type program would recognize the fact that long term employees have made a commitment of their time and life to a company and should not be subject to the whims of management for something as important as their job.  Although, it would be nice if this type tenure had some legal protection, even if there was no law, it would certainly be a great voluntary program for companies who want to get and keep  long term employees.