ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on protecting displaced workers in plant closings by using fiduciary law to enforce implicit employment agreements. Labor economists explain that workers tend to develop long-term attachments to corporations through implicit employment agreements. The chapter explains why fiduciary law may pose less theoretical obstacles than contract law to legally enforce implicit employment agreements. It argues that guidance about the relative reach and the specific content of how the law should evolve in long-term employment relationships can result from emphasizing the importance of interpersonal trust in the workplace. Issues similar to those faced by displaced workers in plant closings arise whenever one party to a long-term commercial relationship seeks to protect its investment from being lost as a consequence of the other party’s opportunistic decision to terminate the relationship. Courts have developed varying approaches to the application of fiduciary obligations to long-term contractual relationships.
