解僱事由之研究-台灣與美國的比較

A Study on the Causes of Discharge: A Comparative Study between Taiwan and the United States

宋季芸(CHI-YUN SONG)

指導教授 ： 林更盛

中原大學/商學院/財經法律研究所/碩士(2006年)

https://doi.org/10.6840/CYCU.2006.00500

摘要

解僱係勞動關係終止態樣之一，惟解僱係雇主單方面為終止勞動契約之行為，若依循契約自由原則處理解僱事由之問題，勞工權益將陷於不利益，因此解僱事由的合法性與合理性就顯得格外重要。
本論文首先簡單介紹解僱的基本概念，在了解解僱的本質、解僱對社會及個人的影響及解僱的概念及分類之後，再就台灣與美國對於解僱的法理與規範作分別的討論與比較。
解僱的法理係探討一國法制對於「解僱」這樣的行為是採取什麼樣的態度？係毫無限制的自由解僱？抑是限制解僱權的濫用即可？或是解僱必須附有正當理由始為合法？基此，吾人得藉由解僱的法理窺見一國勞動法制對雇主解僱權的限制程度，此也關係並影響著一國解僱事由法制規範的方式。
就解僱事由的規範方式而言，本論文主要係以文獻分析方法介紹台灣與美國目前的制度背景。我國勞動基準法係以解僱法理中之解僱正當事由說為規範模式，於勞動基準法第十一、十二條對雇主得據以解僱的合法、正當事由作列舉式規定，因此我國法院於審理解僱相關案件時，除解僱法上應遵守之一般法律原則外，逕依上述規定作為判斷依據，並同時判斷各款解僱事由在實際運用時之標準何在。美國勞動法對於解僱事由之規範，係以任意僱傭原則作為勞動關係之基礎，依此原則，雇主得不附理由任意解僱勞工，然任意僱傭原則對遭遇不當解僱之勞工，使其喪失提起不當解僱訴訟之權利以尋求救濟之可能性。因此，其後由法院逐漸發展出承認任意僱傭原則之例外，以彌補勞工所得享受之權益，此等例外又得區分為契約約定之例外、公共政策之例外，以及法律規定之例外。藉由此等例外條款以限制雇主依任意僱傭原則解僱勞工之自由。惟現今的美國，學說上仍對於是否須訂定一類似我國之解僱正當事由規範，而爭論不休，至今仍尚未有定論。
最後，針對二國解僱法理與解僱事由規範作一簡單的比較，並作為本論文之結論，希望能對我國解僱事由相關法制與實務在未來的思考上提供幫助。

關鍵字

解僱 ； 解僱事由 ； 正當事由 ； 任意僱傭原則 ； 公共政策

並列摘要

Discharge is a kind of termination of employment relationship, and is the act of employer unilaterally terminating employment contract. If we deal the discharge issue with the Freedom of Contract Doctrine, the employee-rights would be disregarded. Thus, it seems extraordinarily important pursuing the legitimacy and rationality of the causes of discharge.
At first, this thesis simply introduces the basic concepts of discharge. After understanding the essence, influences, defenition and types of discharge, it also discusses and compares the legal principles and statutory norms of discharge between Taiwan and the United States.
The legal principles of discharge discuss the attitude of a nation toward the limits of discharge. Should it be totally unlimited? Or should we just forbid abusive discharge? Or should it be legitimate only when discharges are with just cause? Above all, we can find out the regulative degree of discharge between different nations that relates to the statutory norms of discharge.
As to the statutory basis of discharge, this thesis will discriptionally introduce the statutory background about Taiwan and the United States. The Labor Standard Act of Taiwan adopts the just-cause style of regulating discharge, and concretely enumerates legal causes of discharge in Section §11 and §12 of the act. Thus the courts can adjudge with specific standards toward discharge cases in compliance with reasonable judgements according to the legal just cause of discharge. In the United States, “Employment-at-Will Doctrine” predominates the employment relations. According to this doctrine, employers can discharge their employees freely without any reason, even if it is a bad reason. It results that employees who suffer from wrongful discharges will be deprived of their causes of action, therefore losing remedial possibilities. Subsquently, the US courts have developed exceptions of Employment-at-Will Doctrine in order to protect employee rights from invasion and appropriately bound employer right of discharge. The exceptions include the contract exception, the public policy exception and the statutory exception. However, in the US nowadays, law scholars still argue whether the US should have a statutory norm of just-cause of discharge, and still not have final conclusion yet.
Finally, this thesis concludes by making simple compares of the legal principles and the causes of discharge between Taiwan and the United States which may be helpful for related Taiwan statutes and cases.

並列關鍵字

discharge ； cause of discharge ； employment-at-will doctrine ； just cause ； public policy

參考文獻

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