Law Commons^™

Beyond The Cat’S Paw: An Argument For Adopting A “Substantially Influences” Standard For Title Vii And Adea Liability, Tim Davis

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “Susan, an African-American nurse, has worked for a large group of physicians for nearly twenty years and is nearing the end of her career. Susan’s boss has recently retired and has been replaced by a man with an animus toward African-Americans. This has put Susan in a precarious situation.

Instead of overtly discriminating against her, Susan’s supervisor complains to the large medical practice’s personnel committee that Susan’s work is substandard and she no longer is a productive worker. The committee, based on the supervisor’s report, fires Susan.

When Susan goes to court to assert her right not to be …

Labor And Employment Law, W. Melvin Haas Iii, William M. Clifton Iii, W. Jonathan Martin Ii, Glen R. Fagan

Mercer Law Review

This Article surveys recent developments in state statutory and common law that affect labor and employment relations between Georgia employers and employees. Accordingly, it surveys published decisions from the Georgia Court of Appeals and the Georgia Supreme Court from June 1, 2006 to May 31, 2007, as well as selected cases decided by the United States District Court, which purported to refine principles of Georgia employment law. This Article also highlights specific revisions to the Official Code of Georgia Annotated ("O.C.G.A.").

Labor And Employment Law, W. David Paxton, Gregory R. Hunt

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Contributory Disparate Impacts In Employment Discrimination Law, Peter Siegelman

William & Mary Law Review

An employer who adopts a facially neutral employment practice that disqualifies a larger proportion of protected-class applicants than others is liable under a disparate impact theory. Defendants can escape liability if they show that the practice is justified by business necessity. But demonstrating business necessity requires costly validation studies that themselves impose a significant burden on defendants-upwards of $100,000 according to some estimates. This Article argues that an employer should have a defense against disparate impact liability if it can show that protected-class applicants failed to make reasonable efforts to train or prepare for a job related test. That is, …

Invisible Actors: Genetic Testing And Genetic Discrimination In The Workplace, Susannah Carr

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

Current federal and state law is inadequate to protect employees from employer's misuse of their genetic information. Genetic information is knowledge of a person's genome that indicates a predisposition towards an illness, disease, or medical condition, where symptoms of the condition have yet to manifest themselves. Federal law protections are insufficient, and relevant state laws vary in their scope and application. Not only are employees unevenly protected across the United States, but varying standards also make complying with the law difficult for interstate employees.

To give employees sufficient protection and to facilitate employer compliance, Congress should pass a law specifically …

A More Employee Friendly Standard For Pretext Claims After Ash V. Tyson, Deanna C. Brinkerhoff

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The New Massachusetts Health Law: Preemption And Experimentation, Edward A. Zelinsky

William & Mary Law Review

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) preempts major features of the new Massachusetts health law. Although regrettable, this conclusion is mandated by ERISA's statutory terminology and the controlling case law. Other states, in fashioning their health care policies, are looking at elements of the new Massachusetts law. Just as ERISA preempts the individual and business contribution mandates of the Massachusetts statute, ERISA will preempt any similar provisions adopted by other states.

Because state experimentation with health care is particularly desirable today, Congress should, at a minimum, amend ERISA to validate the new Massachusetts health law. More comprehensively, …

A Lesson From The East: International Labor Rights And The U.S.-Cambodia Trade Agreement Of 1999, Michael Hecker

Buffalo Public Interest Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Square Peg And A Round Hole: The Application Of Weingarten Rights To Employee Drug And Alcohol And Alcohol Testing, Daniel V. Johns

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

"You're Fired!" Determining Whether A Wrongly Terminated Employee Who Has Been Reinstated With Back Pay Has An Actionable Title Vii Retaliation Claim, Anna Ku

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

International Commerce And Undocumented Workers: Using Trade To Secure Labor Rights, Laura Jakubowski

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This article explores the rights of illegal immigrants and undocumented workers throughout the world. International treaties have attempted to deal with the rights of undocumented workers, but few countries have been willing to sign on to the treaties. This article argues that undocumented workers should have more expansive rights, and that international trade agreements and institutions should be used where human rights and domestic solutions have failed to guarantee the rights of the most vulnerable workers.

Arbitrating Employment Law Disputes, William L. Corbett

Montana Law Review

Arbitrating Employment Law Disputes

Employment Discrimination, Peter Reed Corbin, John E. Duvall

Mercer Law Review

Similar to the 2005 survey period, during the 2006 survey period, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals continued its trend of issuing fewer and fewer published decisions in the area of employment discrimination. The court issued only six published decisions all year involving Title VII and only published nine opinions in the area of employment discrimination overall. With respect to unpublished opinions, however, the court continued to be extremely active, issuing 103 unpublished Title VII opinions and 148 unpublished employment discrimination opinions overall. This is further evidence of the fact that despite the proliferation of employment discrimination cases before the …

Labor And Employment, W. Christopher Arbery, Valerie N. Njiiri

Mercer Law Review

The Eleventh Circuit's trial and appellate courts handed down several significant opinions affecting labor and employment law during this survey period (January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2006). For example, the Eleventh Circuit rendered notable decisions involving the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"), the Family and Medical Leave Act ("FMLA"), the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA"), and federal and state Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization ("RICO") statutes, and a district court decided a noteworthy decision under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act ("USERRA").

Employee Internet Misuse: How Failing To Investigate Pornography May Lead To Tort Liability, Jamila Johnson

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

This Article addresses a New Jersey appellate court’s holding which suggests that employers have a common law duty to investigate online misconduct by their employees. In Doe v. XYC Corp., the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey held that an employer has a duty to act when (1) it knows that an employee’s use of the Internet would endanger a third person; and (2) it has reason to believe that it may discipline the employee for online activities in the workplace. The court stated that, under this duty to act, an employer must investigate, discipline, and …

The Less Than Fair Employment Practice Of An English-Only Rule In The Workplace, L. Darnell Weeden

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Extending The Reach Of The Chinese Labor Law: How Does The Supreme People's Court's 2006 Interpretation Transform Labor Dispute Resolution, Jill E. Monnin

Washington International Law Journal

Chinese workers are taking advantage of the dispute resolution tools that legal reform has provided in the past decade, including mediation, arbitration, and litigation. Despite a history of resolving disputes through informal mediation, more and more workers are relying on the new pathways of arbitration and civil suits in local courts. The 1993 Regulations on the Resolution of Enterprise Labor Disputes and the 1994 Labor Law facilitated workers’ access to formal legal forums. Then, in 2006, a Supreme People’s Court (“SPC”) interpretation made a number of important changes to the application of the Labor Law and workers’ access to dispute …

Offshore Gambling: Medical Outsourcing Versus Erisa's Fiduciary Duty Requirement, Christopher J. Brady

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

New York's Unwelcoming Harbor: The New York Convention's Inapplicability To Claims Arising From Seamen's Employment, Jarred Pinkston

Brigham Young University International Law & Management Review

No abstract provided.

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell": Negligent Hiring Law In Virginia And The Necessity Of Legislation To Protect Ex-Convicts From Employment Discrimination, Nancy B. Sasser

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. V. White: Retaliation Clarified, Heidi Chewning

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

Surfing The Next Wave Of Outsourcing: The Ethics Of Sending Domestic Legal Work To Foreign Countries Under New York City Opinion 2006-3, Keith Woffinden

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reverse Monitoring: On The Hidden Role Of Employee Stock-Based Compensation, Sharon Hannes

Michigan Law Review

This Article develops a new understanding of equity-based compensation schemes, such as employee stock option plans. Current literature views such schemes as a measure aimed at motivating the recipient employees to work harder for the firm. Under that view, this method of remuneration either complements or substitutes for other measures used to monitor the performance of the recipient employees. In contrast, this Article proposes that recipient employees be viewed as potential monitors of other employees and that stock options (or similar types of compensation) motivate them to fulfill this task. This view has many applications and can shed light on …

Employment Law—Title Vii And The Anti-Retaliation Provision—Beyond Employment And The Workplace: The United States Supreme Court Resolves The Split And Shifts The Balance. Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Co. V. White, 126 S. Ct. 2405 (2006)., Kaylin Redman Hart

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

In its recent decision in Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Co. v. White, the Supreme Court resolved the split along the federal circuit courts by extending Title VII's anti-retaliation provision to retaliatory acts and harms that are unrelated to employment or that occur outside of the workplace. The Court limited its holding by concluding that Title VII prohibits only those employer actions that would "dissuade a reasonable worker from making or supporting a charge of discrimination." This note examines the significance of the Supreme Court's decision in Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Co. v. White to employers and employees in …

Independent Adjudication, Political Process, And The State Of Labor-Management Relations: The Role Of The National Labor Relations Board, William B. Gould Iv

Indiana Law Journal

William R. Stewart Lecture given at Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington on October 31, 2006.

Theory And Practice: Employer Liability For Sexual Harassment, B. Glenn George

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

A Structural Approach As Antidiscrimination Mandate: Locating Employer Wrong, Tristin K. Green

Vanderbilt Law Review

A structural approach to employment discrimination law seeks to impose an obligation on employers not to facilitate discriminatory decisionmaking in the workplace. Scholars across disciplines agree that a structural approach is a crucial element of an effective antidiscrimination law. Existing law fails to account for the ways in which bias manifests subtly in day-to-day workplace decisionmaking, or for the influence of organizational context on that decisionmaking. But the future of a structural approach depends, in part, on its normative foundation. Without sufficient normative underpinning, a structural approach is unlikely to gain traction in the public or in the courts.

In …

Property, Contracts, And Politics, Mark Tushnet

Michigan Law Review

Rebecca Scott is a historian, not an economist. Describing how a dispute over a mule's ownership was resolved, Professor Scott reproduces a receipt two claimants left when they took the mule from the plantation whose manager claimed it as well (p. 185). By contrast, analyzing property relations in the pre-Civil War American South, economic historian Jenny Wahl observes, "[E]conomic historians tend to [use] ... frequency tables, graphs, and charts." The differences in visual aids to understanding indicate the various ways historians and economists approach a single topic-the relation between markets and politics, the latter defined to include the deployment of …

Young Associates In Trouble, William D. Henderson, David Zaring

Michigan Law Review

Large law firms have reputations as being tough places to work, and the larger the firm, the tougher the firm. Yet, notwithstanding the grueling hours and the shrinking prospects of partnership, these firms perennially attract a large proportion of the nation's top law school graduates. These young lawyers could go anywhere but choose to work at large firms. Why do they do so if law firms are as inhospitable as their reputations suggest? Two recent novels about the lives of young associates in large, prestigious law firms suggest that such a rational calculation misapprehends the costs. Law professor Kermit Roosevelt's …

The Employment Law Year In Review June 2004-June 2005, Judith M. Conti

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

No abstract provided.