Reputation Insurance: Why Negotiating for Moral Reciprocity Should Emerge as a Much Needed Source of Protection for the Employee

Abstract

[Excerpt] In March 2011 the Warner Brothers television studio made headlines when it terminated its employment contract with Charlie Sheen for the hit television show Two and A Half Men. Sheen was terminated after going on a public tirade that included several well-publicized drug binges as well as making allegedly anti-Semitic comments about the show’s executive producer Chuck Lorre.[1] Sheen responded to the termination by suing both the studio and executive producer Chuck Lorre for $120 million claiming, among other things, that both parties had breached his employment contract.[2] While the case settled out of court, one of the main defenses cited by Warner Brothers was the existence of a clause in Sheen’s contract that would allow for termination if he committed any act “which constitutes a felony offense involving moral turpitude under federal, state, or local laws, or if indicted or convicted of any such offense.”[3] Warner Brothers claimed that Sheen had committed the equivalent of such a crime, pointing to Sheen’s open and public use of cocaine during this time period.