Law Commons^™

Amicus Curiae Brief Of The American Civil Liberties Union Of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, Pioneer Valley Workers Center, United Food And Commercial Workers Local 1459, University Of Massachusetts Labor Relations And Research Center, And Professor Michael Wishnie In Support Of Plaintiffs-Appellants, William C. Newman, Harris Freeman

Faculty Scholarship

This Amicus Curiae Brief is filed on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, Pioneer Valley Workers Center, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1459, University of Massachusetts Labor Relations and Research Center, and Professor Michael Wishnie in Support of Plaintiffs-Appellants, Arias-Villano v. Chang & Son Enters., 481 Mass. 625 (2019).

Coaches In Court: Legal Challenges To Sex Discrimination In College Athletics, Erin E. Buzuvis

Faculty Scholarship

Sex discrimination continues to operate in the working environment of college athletics. Female coaches experience bias both because of their sex and the intersections of gender stereotypes with stereotypes about women of color, lesbians, and aging. The law continues to be a leverage to challenge barriers to women’s leadership in college sports. This Article provides an overview of the relevant legal protections in three cases brought by coaches Beth Burns, Tracey Griesbaum, and Shannon Miller. Their cases expose discrimination and the double standard related to the value of female coaches’ success.

Temp Organizing Gets Big Boost From Nlrb, Harris Freeman, George Gonos

Faculty Scholarship

Workers employed by temporary staffing agencies may find it easier to organize and bargain as the result of the National Labor Relations Board decision in the Browning-Ferris Industries (BFI) case. This Article describes how the decision revamped the Board’s test for what is considered a “joint employer,” imposing new legal obligations on employers who hire through temp agencies and potentially also on giant corporate franchisors. Unions may now get access to these agreements at several points in the process of organizing: 1) in the context of proving joint employment, when the Board is determining the appropriate bargaining unit; 2) when …

Inequality, Discrimination And Sexual Violence In Us Collegiate Sports, Erin E. Buzuvis, Kristine Newhall

Faculty Scholarship

While college athletics attract thousands of participants and millions of fans each year, examination of United States college athletics reveals a pattern of inequality, discrimination and abuse, which operates to foreclose women's access and suppress women's interest in athletic participation and leadership. This Chapter examines three gender related issues of integrity in college athletics: gender discrimination in athletic participation and opportunity; barriers to leadership for women coaches and administrators; and the relationship between athletics and sexual violence at college and universities. The Chapter also identifies a number of remedies that can mitigate these problems involving the Department of Education, Congress, …

Athletic Compensation For Women Too? Title Ix Implications Of Northwestern And O'Bannon, Erin E. Buzuvis

Faculty Scholarship

The NCAA has been relying on Title IX requirements to defend its polices prohibiting compensation for college athletics; it argues that paying athletes in revenue sports, coupled with the commensurate obligation under Title IX to pay female athletes, would be prohibitively expensive.

As a response to the NCAA’s argument, the Author seeks to advance two positions: first, that Title IX would, as argued by the NCAA, require payment of female athletes using some measure of equality; and second, that it is not Title IX that renders the prospect of athlete compensation cost prohibitive, but rather, the fact that college athletics …

A Reasonable Belief: In Support Of Lgbt Plaintiffs' Title Vii Retaliation Claims, Erin E. Buzuvis

Faculty Scholarship

When an LGBT employee is punished for complaining about discrimination in the workplace, he or she has two potential causes of action under Title VII: first, a challenge to the underlying discrimination, and second, a challenge to the resulting retaliation. The first claim is vulnerable to dismissal under courts’ narrow interpretation of Title VII’s prohibition of discrimination “because of sex” as applied to LGBT plaintiffs. But such an outcome need not determine the fate of the second claim. Faithful application of retaliation law’s “reasonable belief” standard, which protects a plaintiff from reprisal so long as she reasonably believed that she …

Amicus Brief Of Labor Relations And Research Center, U. Mass., Amherst In Browning-Ferris, Nlrb Rc-109684, Harris Freeman, George Gonos

Faculty Scholarship

Amicus brief submitted by the Labor Relations and Research Center, University of Massachusetts, to the National Labor Relations Board in the representation case of Brown-Ferris Industries, Leadpoint Business Services and Local 350, Teamsters, RC-109684. The brief provides a socio-legal argument for the joint-employer status of the temporary staffing agency and its user clients under federal labor law and the duty of both employers to bargain with joint-employed temp workers who seek union representation and a collective bargaining agreement.

Amici Brief Of Labor Relations And Research Center, U. Mass., Amherst And Massachusetts Wage Campaign, In Meshna V. Scrivanos, Sjc 11618, Harris Freeman

Faculty Scholarship

Amici brief submitted by the Labor Relations and Research Center, University of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Wage Campaign, to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in the case of Meshna v. Scrivanos. The brief argues that the Massachusetts Tips Act prohibits no-tipping policies and that it does not sanction such no-tipping policies as a lawful business response to customer demand or preference. Furthermore, it argues that no-tipping policies contribute to the impoverishment of the low-wage workforce and foist the social and economic costs of tipping bans onto citizen-tax payers.

Clothes Don't Make The Man (Or Woman), But Gender Identity Might, Jennifer Levi

Faculty Scholarship

The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in Jespersen v. Harrah's Operating Co., Inc. reflects the blinders on many contemporary courts regarding the impact of sex-differentiated dress requirements on female employees. Although some courts have acknowledged the impermissibility of imposing sexually exploitive dress requirements, they have done so only at the extreme outer limits, ignoring the concrete harms experienced by women (and men) who are forced to conform to externally imposed gender norms. On the other hand, some transgender litigants have recently succeeded in challenging sex-differentiated dress requirements. This success is due in part to their incorporation of disability claims based on …

Federal Equal Protection, Taylor Flynn

Faculty Scholarship

The Author explores the use of due process and equal protection guarantees from the U.S. Constitution as a means to challenge workplace discrimination faced by LGBT government employees. The Author also discusses how private employees must rely on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to assert similar claims. Because sex discrimination is prohibited under both the Constitution and Title VII, federal courts have relied on reasoning in the former context when analyzing the latter, and vice versa. This means that a watershed case regarding one law can contain reasoning for the other. The Author goes on to the discuss …

The Challenge Of Temporary Work In Twenty-First Century Labor Markets: Flexibility With Fairness For The Low-Wage Temporary Workforce, Harris Freeman, George Gonos

Faculty Scholarship

As the Commonwealth wrestles with the social and economic aftershocks of the worst economic recession in 80 years, the widespread use of temporary staffing arrangements is a sober reminder that the “standard” employment relationship, a cornerstone of the prosperity of the post-­World War II era, is no longer available to a large segment of the American workforce. “Job ladders” have disintegrated, depriving capable and dedicated workers of predictable promotions. Regular step increases in pay and cost-­of-­living adjustments are in many occupational categories a thing of the past. Simply put, the “good jobs” working people need to support families, pay the …

The First Of Thousands? The Long View Of Local 1330'S Challenge To Management Rights And Plant Closings, Harris Freeman

Faculty Scholarship

This Article introduces and frames a symposium issue of Harvard Law School’s Unbound, Journal of the Legal Left that is devoted to an assessment of Local 1330, United Steel Workers v. U.S. Steel (6th Cir. 1980) on the 30th anniversary of the decision. The Author provides a historical and legal context for the federal courts’ decisions on the Steelworkers’ novel community property and contractual claims brought by the plaintiffs in an effort to prevent U.S. Steel from closing its manufacturing operations Youngtown, Ohio. In this context, the Author discusses the relationship of the plaintiffs’ community property claim to the origins …

Sidelined: Title Ix Retaliation Cases And Women's Leadership In College Athletics, Erin E. Buzuvis

Faculty Scholarship

Discrimination against women seeking or serving in leadership positions in sport is worthy of analysis, not only for the sake of individual women who desire to self-actualize as a head coach or athletic administrator, but because the unique role of sport in society gives underrepresentation of women in leadership positions additional significance. Due to its high visibility and widespread appeal—its veritable iconic status—sport is a salient site of cultural production. That is, sport operates on a symbolic level, reflecting and transmitting shared cultural values. Among these values, sport helps define the attributes associated with leadership, and thus, derivatively, power. By …

Taming The Employment Sharks: The Case For Regulating Profit-Driven Labor Market Intermediaries In High Mobility Labor Markets, Harris Freeman, George Gonos

Faculty Scholarship

Over the last quarter century, a profound restructuring of U.S. labor markets has occurred. Long-term job tenure, internal labor markets, and employer-sponsored benefits have waned under the pressures of neoliberal globalization. The trend is toward increasingly precarious, shorter-term, serial employment relationships that offer significantly lower wages, reduced job-related benefits, and formidable obstacles to the exercise of employment rights. This fundamental shift has moved so-called “non-standard” employment arrangements, once viewed as marginal, into the core economy. As a result, a remarkable array of profit-driven labor market intermediaries (LMIs) are now embedded in mainstream labor markets. Temporary help and staffing agencies, payrolling …

"Think Glocal, Act Glocal": The Praxis Of Social Justice Lawyering In The Global Era, Lauren Carasik

Faculty Scholarship

Millions of people in the world struggle to survive in extreme economic deprivation, and deteriorating conditions have highlighted the failure of international development policies to "lift all boats." The complex and globalized context of poverty compels social justice lawyers to innovate transnational advocacy strategies, expanding human rights norms as part of those efforts. This Article suggests a cross-border, collaborative advocacy model for clinical education. The model is premised on theories of global interconnectedness that integrate progressive lawyering, social change theory and anti-poverty work in the global era, thereby contributing to the discourse about and praxis of combating international economic injustice. …

Misapplying Equity Theories: Dress Codes At Work, Jennifer L. Levi

Faculty Scholarship

This Article provides a new perspective on Title VII caselaw concerning employer-mandated, sex-specific dress codes. With few exceptions, courts have held that employer dress codes do not constitute sex discrimination even when they expressly differentiate based solely on an employee's sex. In other contexts, courts readily acknowledge that facially sex-based practices and policies are presumptively unlawful under Title VII. When it comes to dress codes, however, nearly the opposite is true. Courts generally presume a sex-based dress code to be permissible, and the burden falls heavily on the employee to show, beyond the mere fact of differential treatment, some additional …

Protections For Transgender Employees, Jennifer L. Levi

Media Presence

Many transgender employees routinely face demotions, unfavorable conditions of employment, and even discriminatory terminations--due not to job-related problems but to employers' discomfort with and animus against transgender people. Lawyers may look to several sources of law in order to redress the rights of transgender clients who face adverse treatment in such situations, including transgender-specific nondiscrimination laws, state and federal sex discrimination laws, and state disability laws. Although courts historically have found transgender people excluded from coverage under certain laws, developing case law supports the arguments of transgender employees who face workplace discrimination.

Union Must Provide Attorney Representation Without Regard To Union Membership--National Treasury Employees Union V. Federal Labor Relations Authority, Beth Cohen

Faculty Scholarship

The Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute sets forth union guidelines for collective bargaining representation in the federal sector. A labor organization with recognized exclusivity is responsible for the non-discriminatory representation of all bargaining unit employees without regard to union membership. In National Treasury Employees Union v. Federal Labor Relations Authority, a case of first impression, the court considered whether a federal employees union may, in accordance with statutory obligations, consider union membership in determining the type of representation it provides to individual employees. The court held that by denying non-union members attorney representation and substituting representation by a shop steward …

The 1976 Amendments To The Act Governing Collective Bargaining Between Teacher Organizations And Boards Of Education In Connecticut: An Appraisal, Peter Adomeit

Faculty Scholarship

In 1976, the Connecticut General Assembly amended the Teacher Negotiation Act in several significant ways. This Article reviews these amendments.

Hines V. Anchor Motor Freight: Another Step In The Seemingly Inexorable March Toward Converting Federal Judges (And Juries) Into Labor Arbitrators Of Last Resort, Peter Adomeit

Faculty Scholarship

This Article, directed to the courts, and especially to the federal bench, carries this message: you are in danger of converting the federal judiciary into a panel of labor arbitrators. The advance sheets of the federal courts are beginning to read like Labor Arbitration Reports. The kinds of disputes that in the past were resolved by private arbitration are beginning to appear at an increasing rate on the dockets of the federal courts: Did the company have just cause when it discharged the grievants for allegedly falsifying their expense accounts? Did the company violate the agreement with the union when …