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Legal Issues In The Workplace Simulation Report

Employment Disputes
Each year, companies are faced with employment disputes resulting from the termination of employment to disparate treatment of employee rights. This paper will focus on the Resolving Employment Dispute simulation addressed in week 3. The paper will analyze the simulation and identify and discuss key legal decisions that were made during the situation. Internal and external elements and pressures that led up to the issues and the decision making process of the company will be discussed. The paper will address what elements of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process and which solutions were administered during the simulation. Lastly, this paper will discuss what an organization can learn from the simulation experience on ADR.
Key Legal Issues
BioRemedia Pharmaceuticals is on the verge of inventing a drug that will help control cardiac disorders. The company has hired Rowen Thomas to be the Chief Research Associate for Project Bromediac. Mr. Thomas comes to the company as one of the leading specialists in the research field of cardiac disorders. His credentials are impeccable. It has been determined that confidential information in regards to Project Bromediac has leaked to BioRemdia's rival, Steinmetz. Management has determined that the breach had to have come from Rowen Thomas because he was the only person privy to such information. Mr. Thomas was terminated from employment based on the breach of confidentiality (UOP Resolving Employment Dispute Simulation, run July 17, 2006).
What to do about the situation and how the company handles the breach has important legal issues involved. Did Rowen Thomas commit intellectual property theft? If so, should the company file charges against the discharged employee? Because the company terminated the employee would he have a case for wrongful discharge? Could Mr. Thomas file a defamation of character lawsuit against the company? Was the leak a breach of confidentiality by...