A crew of five pipe fitters was employed by a contractor and was ordered to install a valve on a transfer pipe to a high-level nuclear waste tank. However, the crew had sufficient experience to realize that the wrong valve had been ordered.

The valve to be installed was rated at 1,975 pounds per square inch (psi) in a system of pipes that was to be tested at 2,235 psi. The crew was concerned that the underrated valve could cause nuclear contamination and injury to workers.

They refused their supervisor’s orders to install the underrated valve and stopped work at the site until management relented and ordered the sturdier valve to be installed. One month later, the company terminated the whole crew citing financial cutbacks in the company.

CASE QUESTIONS

1. What exceptions could the pipe fitters assert to displace the employment-at-will doctrine?

2. What theory would be best advanced by the pipe fitters?

Explain.