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Subject Area: Political Theory

Job Autonomy vs. Contract - Leonard P. Liggio, Literature of Liberty, January/March 1979, vol. 2, No. 1 [1979]

Edition used:

Literature of Liberty: A Review of Contemporary Liberal Thought was published first by the Cato Institute (1978-1979) and later by the Institute for Humane Studies (1980-1982) under the editorial direction of Leonard P. Liggio.

Part of: Literature of Liberty: A Review of Contemporary Liberal Thought, 20 vols. 19781-982

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


Job Autonomy vs. Contract

David W. Ewing

  • Harvard University

“Winning Freedom on the Job.” Civil Liberties Review 4 (July/August 1977): 8–22.

It is incongruous and wrong that while Americans enjoy civil liberties and personal autonomy in many contexts, they do not do so at work. The primary obstacle to extending Constitutional guarantees of civil liberties to the workplace is the common law view of employment. Under common law, an employee is obliged to be obedient and loyal. While an employee can refuse to perform illegal or unethical acts, he may do so only by withdrawing from the firm. He has no right to refuse and to remain. In general, the law regards the relationship between employer and employee as one based on freedom of contract. Thus, in the absence of contractual provisions to the contrary, either side may terminate the employment relationship at any time for any reason.

The freedom of contract analysis of employment, the author argues, is outmoded and should be discarded because: (1) freedom of contract is premised upon substantively equal bargaining power, but such is not the case; (2) ‘actual’ freedom and constitutional freedom are not the same, and it is the former ‘actual’ freedom which is determined by the power of the employer; and (3) the distinction between private and public institutions makes no difference. In effect, large private companies affect the public interest as much as public institutions and therefore should not have sanction to be operated “selfishly.”

Employees should have a bill of rights affording: (1) the right to refuse to carry out directives that violate common norms of morality; (2) the right to criticize their employer's ethics without being fired; (3) the right to refuse to take personality, polygraph, or other tests in addition to prohibiting audio or visual recordings without prior knowledge and consent; (4) due process rights to a hearing if an employee thinks he has been discharged for asserting the rights given by the employee's bill of rights.