ABSTRACT
The analysis begins with a look at the limited existing evidence on rates of public employee dismissal, followed by a more detailed discussion of a recent comparative analysis of state employee dismissal. It seeks to account for interstate variation in state employee dismissal rates, and in managers' views of discipline and dismissal processes as a management impediment. The chapter discusses extent of civil service coverage, extent of collective bargaining, and the degree to which a state's dismissal process had been simplified could account for little variation, other factors that might influence dismissals. Although some interstate variation exists, formal dismissal rates seem quite low in the American states, averaging about one employee in 100 annually for a three-year period. Florida and Georgia are two states that have moved substantially in the direction of at-will employment in recent years. The analysis concludes by confronting the trade-offs in replacing the just-cause standard of dismissal with at-will provisions.
