Question

list and explain three of the legal, ethical, and socio-economic conditions in the United States in the 19th Century that led a majority of U.S. state courts to adopt the at will doctrine?

Answer 1

It seems to have been a massive mistake and it's being traced back to a New York case in the late 19th century by modern legal scholars.

Under British common law, employees have the right to notify before being dismissed, except where the employer has cause to dismiss them. It appears the lawyers and judges in a New York case merely misread the British law on the subject. The case cited three British cases, which seemed to support the argument the workers with no defined term of employment could be fired 'at will' under British common law. That precedent spread across the United States (with the exception of Louisiana, which does not use common law).

But for the British cases cited in the decision claim no such thing. All of these cases support the claim that employees who do not have a fixed term of employment are entitled to a notice period before being dismissed if there is no reason to do so. In fact, that is the law in all Commonwealth States. In most nations, it is also the law which has a civil code.

As such, U.S. jobs "at will" is an aberration. That surprises American companies like Wal-Mart, who come to Canada and find that without consequences they can't just fire people. They fired an assistant manager in Ontario whose life had become a living hell when she refused to falsify a missing temperature entry that wasn't made when she was on holiday. That cost half-million for Wal-Mart.