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egarding an unjust termination. These five standards include promissoryestoppel, implied contract, public policy tort, intentional inflictionof emotional distress, and implied covenant.Promissory Estoppel Promissory estoppel has been used bysome courts as proper grounds for unjust dismissal lawsuits. However,to build a solid case based on promissory estoppel, four elements mustbe proven. These elements include the following:l The employer makes a promise to an employee that the employer canreasonably expect the employee to rely upon.l The employee actually relies upon that promise, and as a result, doesor doesn’t do something.l The employee ordinarily would not have acted or refrained fromacting had it not been for the employer’s promise.l The employee is in some way harmed by the employer’s failure tohonor the promise.If all of these elements exist, then the court may prevent theemployer from denying responsibility for the loss suffered by theemployee as a result of that reliance.Example 2. Nigel Harrington worked as abookkeeper for Federated Shipping, Inc. InJune, he was arrested and charged with embezzlement.Harrington’s supervisor told himthat he would be suspended pending the resultsof the case. The supervisor assured Harringtonthat he would have his job back withfull seniority rights if the case were resolvedin his favor. In reliance on this promise, Harringtondidn’t seek another job, and insteadconcentrated on clearing his name. When thecharges were dropped, Harrington attemptedto get his old job back only to find that Federatedwould not employ him.PROMISSORY ESTOPPELIf an employer makes a promise toan employee and that employeerelies on the promise and suffers aloss as a result, then the employeemay be permitted to bring awrongful discharge lawsuit based onpromissory estoppel. What are theelements of promissory estoppel?Chapter 20: Employment Law 437