Law Commons^™

The Bfoq Defense In Adea Suits: The Scope Of "Duties Of The Job", Robert L. Fischman

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines these three possible interpretations of which job characteristics a court must examine when determining the validity of a BFOQ defense to an ADEA suit and concludes that the Eighth Circuit's standard is correct. Because disputes over which interpretation is proper arise almost exclusively in cases involving public safety occupations, this Note discusses the standards for measuring that scope within the framework of the policy considerations associated with public safety. Part I of this Note discusses the three current standards used to determine the scope of the BFOQ defense. Part II illuminates the problems inherent in having three …

Introduction, Winn Newman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Symposium helps to explain that "comparable worth" is merely a euphemism for garden variety discrimination that violates express prohibitions of federal antidiscrimination law and severely limits job-related opportunities and benefits for women and minorities. Hopefully, the message of this Symposium will not be lost on reasonable people: that wage discrimination is unlawful and that our energies must now be turned to developing effective means for eliminating it.

Pay Equity--The Minnesota Experience, Nina Rothchild

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The concept of comparable worth is simple: jobs should be paid according to their value, whether the jobs are performed by men or by women. It says that pay should be based on the level of skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions required to do the job. It is hard to believe that such a common sense idea could generate such an emotional reaction.

In this essay I will describe Minnesota's experience with pay equity at the state and local levels. Our experience leads us to believe that the arguments of the opposition are pure conjecture and that the scare …

Comparable Worth -- The Theory, Its Legal Foundation, And The Feasibility Of Implementation, Carin Ann Clauss

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

County of Washington v. Gunther was decided by the Supreme Court over five years ago. In that case, the Court, resolving a conflict among the circuits, ruled that sex-based wage discrimination claims could proceed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 without regard to the limiting "equal work" standard of the Equal Pay Act. Following this decision, it was generally assumed that the courts would become the major forum for redressing sex-based wage discrimination. The anticipated litigation explosion never took place. Few wage discrimination suits have been filed, and even fewer have been successful. What progress has …

Remedies For Wage Discrimination, Ruth Gerber Blumrosen

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The thesis of this Article is that wage discrimination can be remedied by the federal courts through a process that is both practical and efficient. This can be done, without turning the federal courts into wage control agencies or bankrupting the nation's employers, by treating the problem of wage discrimination in precisely the same manner as other forms of discrimination are treated. Our experience with different types of wage discrimination now permits us to generalize about the types of remedies that are appropriate to correct those typical forms of wage discrimination that have now been fully identified.

Thoughts On Comparable Worth Litigation And Organizational Strategies, Nancy Gertner

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

To watch the evolution of Title VIP is to watch the gradual constricting of a law that many had heralded as a tool of social change for women. Its passage represented a statement that the so-called free market had not worked for women. Women were denied access to higher paying and high-status positions. Even when a job was integrated, women's work was undervalued and their wages frequently depressed. With the passage of Title VII came the hope that the law would do what the market could not-break the cycle of discrimination.

Sex discrimination, in contrast with other forms of discrimination, …

Shareholders Versus Managers: The Strain In The Corporate Web, John C. Coffee Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Part I will seek to understand why firms trade in the stock market at a substantial discount from their asset value. It will answer that existing theories of the firm have not given adequate attention to a critical area where shareholders and managers have an inherent conflict, one that the existing structure of the firm does not resolve or mitigate. Despite the significant changes in the internal structure of the corporation over the last half century that have been described by business historians, there remains a deep internal strain between shareholders, on the one hand, and managers and employees, on …

The Attainment Of Pay Equity Between The Sexes By Legal Means: An Economic Analysis, George E. Johnson, Gary R. Solon

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The purpose of this Article is to present an analysis of the gap between men's and women's wages with particular emphasis on the likely effects of various existing and proposed legal remedies. Part I sets out a simple "ideal" statistical model of wage determination. Its purpose is to identify carefully the potential impact of alternative legal remedies such as the Equal Pay Act, Title VII, and proposed policies like comparable worth. This model is ideal in the sense that, although it could be estimated in principle, there is no data set currently available with which it could actually be estimated. …

Employer Postcertification Polls To Determine Union Support, James D. Dasso

Michigan Law Review

This Note evaluates these competing standards in light of the two major policy objectives of the NLRA: industrial stability and employee free choice. It concludes that the courts of appeals properly apply a less stringent standard. Part I considers employer polling in the larger context of the general law of employer interrogation. This section concludes that the Board's standard for postcertification polling deviates significantly from the general law of employer interrogation as well as the more specific rules established for precertification polling. The remainder of this Note demonstrates that the Board's distinctions between pre- and postcertification polling do not justify …

When Justice Fails, Stephan Landsman

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Haymarket Tragedy by Paul Avrich

Evaluating Unions: Labor Economics And The Law, Michael J. Goldberg

Michigan Law Review

A Review ofWhat Do Unions Do? by Richard B. Freeman and James L. Medoff

Challenges And Choices Facing American Labor, George Feldman

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Challenges and Choices Facing American Labor edited by Thomas A. Kochan

Integrity And Circumspection: The Labor Law Vision Of Bernard D. Meltzer, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Articles

Bernard Meltzer has testified under oath that he "rarely take[s] absolute positions." The record bears him out. While his colleagues among labor law scholars often strain to demonstrate that the labor relations statutes and even the Constitution support their hearts' desires, the typical Meltzer stance is one of cool detachment, pragmatic assessment, and cautious, balanced judgment. The "itch to do good," Meltzer has remarked wryly, "is a doubtful basis for jurisdiction" -or, he would likely add, for any other legal conclusion. In this brief commentary I propose to examine the Meltzer approach to four broad areas of labor law: (1) …

Nlra Preemption Of State Law Actions For Wrongful Discharge In Violation Of Public Policy, Thomas Bean

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note considers the circumstances under which the NLRA should preempt state law tort suits for discharge in contravention of public policy by employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement, and by at-will employees. Part I discusses the rationale behind the preemption doctrine and outlines the tests the Supreme Court has adopted for determining when the NLRA preempts state laws. Part II argues that the specific rationale behind the Court's preemption tests are inapplicable to the typical public policy wrongful discharge action. Part III identifies the ways in which public policy wrongful discharge actions might infringe on the NLRA. It …

Boycott, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Book Chapters

A boycott is a group refusal to deal. Such concerted action is an effective way for society’s less powerful members,such as unorganized workers or racial minorities, to seek fair treatment in employment, public accommodations,and public services. But as the Supreme Court recognized in Eastern States Retail Lumber Dealers’ Association v.United States (1914): ‘‘An act harmless when done by one may become a public wrong when done by many acting in concert, for it then takes on the form of a conspiracy.’’

Picketing, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Book Chapters

Picketing typically consists of one or more persons patrolling or stationed at a particular site, carrying or wearing large signs with a clearly visible message addressed to individuals or groups approaching the site. Some form of confrontation between the pickets and their intended addressees appears an essential ingredient of picketing. Congress and the National Labor Relations Board have distinguished between picketing and handbilling, however, and merely passing out leaflets without carrying a placard does not usually constitute picketing. What stamps picketing as different from more conventional forms of communication, for constitutional and other legal purposes, ordinarily seems to be the …