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Labor and Employment Law

University of Washington School of Law

Journal

2019

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

Full-Text Articles in Law

China-Eu Bit And Fta: Building A Bridge On The Silk Road Not Detoured By Labor Standard Provisions, Ronald C. Brown Dec 2019

China-Eu Bit And Fta: Building A Bridge On The Silk Road Not Detoured By Labor Standard Provisions, Ronald C. Brown

Washington International Law Journal

It is time for European Union and Chinese leaders to build on the existing EU-China 2020 Strategic Agenda for Cooperation, quickly conclude on-going negotiations on their EU-China Bilateral Investment Treaty, and begin substantive negotiations on an EU-China Free Trade Agreement? China is now the European Union's second-biggest trading partner behind the United States, and the European Union is China's biggest trading partner. China is reaching to become the leader in globalism and is investing heavily to make it happen. One of the world’s largest projects, the Belt and Road Initiative is a primary driver of China's larger development strategy. A …


Platform Pleading: Analyzing Employment Disputes In The Technology Sector, Joseph A. Seiner Dec 2019

Platform Pleading: Analyzing Employment Disputes In The Technology Sector, Joseph A. Seiner

Washington Law Review

The technology sector has created thousands of new jobs for workers across the country in an emerging multi-billion dollar industry. Many companies in this platform-based sector are attempting to characterize their workers as independent contractors rather than employees, thus stripping them of both federal and state workplace protections—including the right to bargain collectively, receive fair compensation, and avoid discrimination. The federal courts, which have always grappled with the question of worker classification, are now struggling to define employment with respect to these gig sector jobs. The result has been scattered court decisions with inconsistent and conflicting analyses. This Essay seeks …


The Return Of The Technical Mcdonnell Douglas Paradigm, Katie Eyer Oct 2019

The Return Of The Technical Mcdonnell Douglas Paradigm, Katie Eyer

Washington Law Review

For many anti-discrimination plaintiffs, the McDonnell Douglas paradigm will determine the success or failure of their claims. And yet, for decades, most lower courts have applied a technical version of McDonnell Douglas—under which plaintiffs invariably lose. Thus, instead of asking the factual question of whether the defendant’s action was “because of” protected class status, the lower courts rely on a host of technical rules to dismiss even factually strong anti-discrimination claims. This is not the first time the lower courts have attempted to adopt a technical version of the McDonnell Douglas paradigm. In the 1970s and 1980s, the lower courts …


Regulating Wage Theft, Jennifer J. Lee, Annie Smith Jun 2019

Regulating Wage Theft, Jennifer J. Lee, Annie Smith

Washington Law Review

Wage theft costs workers billions of dollars each year. During a time when the federal government is rolling back workers’ rights, it is essential to consider how state and local laws can address the problem. As this Article explains, the pernicious practice of wage theft seemingly continues unabated, despite a recent wave of state and local laws to curtail it. This Article provides the first comprehensive analysis of state and local anti-wage theft laws. Through a compilation of 141 state and local anti-wage theft laws enacted over the past decade, this Article offers an original typology of the most common …


An Empirical Study Of Fast-Food Franchsing Contracts: Towards A New "Intermediary" Theory Of Joint Employment, Kati L. Griffith Mar 2019

An Empirical Study Of Fast-Food Franchsing Contracts: Towards A New "Intermediary" Theory Of Joint Employment, Kati L. Griffith

Washington Law Review

The “Fight for Fifteen and a Union” movement among fast-food workers and their allies has raised awareness about wage inequality in the United States. Rather than negotiating for better wages and working conditions with economically weak restaurant-level franchisees, the movement aims to affect the practices of what they view as the all-powerful brands—the franchisors. Few would dispute the notion that the franchisor brands, not their franchisees, set industry-wide standards and, thus, have the ability to offset rising wage inequality and improve working conditions. And yet, the movement has raised controversial law and policy questions about the legal responsibilities of these …