Law Commons^™

Locating The 'Nanny' In Legal Theory, Akshat Agarwal

National Law School Journal

Paid domestic workers pose a challenge to legal theorists since they occupy the unique intersection of the market and the home. While being paid for the ‘care’ they provide, their work is characterised by a high degree of informality and is usually also considered emotive. I use India as a case study to show how attempts to include paid domestic workers within formal labour law protections have been consistently unsuccessful, which demonstrates the unique nature of paid domestic work. At the same time, academic arguments for the inclusion of such workers in family law frameworks raise several practical concerns and …

It’S About Time: Rejection Of The De Minimis Doctrine In State Wage And Hour Laws, Abigail Britton

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Since the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) in 1938, courts have grappled with how to interpret which activities an employee performs for their employer should be considered “work.” The FLSA requires employers pay a minimum wage, pay overtime, and keep records of their employees’ time. However, to calculate these wages based on hours worked, the employer must know what constitutes “work.” Over the 80 years since its enactment, federal courts have adopted rules to determine what counts as work. One doctrine courts apply is the de minimis doctrine. Under the de minimis doctrine, employers do not need …

Following In California’S Footsteps?: Pennsylvania Eliminates The De Minimis Exception In State Wage And Hour Claims, Lauren E. Stahl

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), employers risk receiving wage and hour violations if they fail to compensate employees for all “hours worked” or fail to adhere to minimum wage and overtime requirements. The de minimis doctrine provides an exception to this general rule and excuses employers from compensating employees for insignificant amounts of time spent on otherwise compensable off-the-clock work activities. Examples of de minimis off-the-clock work activities include waiting for a computer to load or waiting to log onto a computer network. These activities are considered de minimis because they take only a minute or less, and …

You Guys Are Getting Paid? Time For Interns To Cash In On The Flsa, Lauren Hand

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), individuals who qualify as employees are entitled to the federal minimum wage. Because the statute itself gives little guidance about who meets the FLSA definition of an employee, courts generally determine employee status by applying the economic reality test, which assesses the economic circumstances of the relationship and tends toward broad inclusivity. The Supreme Court, however, created a caveat in 1947 in Walling v. Portland Terminal, holding that trainees might be uniquely excluded from FLSA employee status and its attending benefits. The trainee exception, as it has since become known, has expanded in …

Ball Never Lies: How Guaranteed Contracts Provide Nba Players More Security Than Nfl Players To Advocate For Social Justice, Matthew Epstein

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Preventing The Preventable: A Review Of Maternal Mortality Rates In South Carolina, Sydney J. Douglas

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Capitalization Of The Global Green Economy: An Analysis Of South Carolina's Current Foreign Direct Investment Efforts And Suggestions For Continued Sustainability, William E. Hilger

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Guarantees Of Laborers To Terminate Work Contract For Technical And Economic Reasons Under Palestinian Law: A Comparative Study, Ibrahem Yahya, Mr. Amr Saabneh

UAEU Law Journal

This research deals with the guarantees of the employee while the Palestinian legislator authorized the employer to terminate the labor contract for technical and economic reasons "loss". This research discusses these guarantees for the legitimate reasons have been regulated under article 41 of the Palestinian Labor Law .This research aims at clarifying the reasonable criterions For the technical reason to make a balance between the conflicting interests between the employer and the employee, as well as the adoption of the criterion of "extraordinary event" in the loss, in order to achieve a guarantee of the employee in light of the …

Accountability For Employers Or Independence For Contractors? Accomplishing Ab5’S Labor Classification Goals In The Gig Economy, Chelsea Rauch

Seattle University Law Review

U.S. employment law traditionally classifies workers as either employees or independent contractors; each worker under this traditional legal rubric can only be classified as one or the other—there can be no ambiguity or overlap. An employee is generally defined as “a person hired for a regular, continuous period to perform work for an employer who maintains control over both the service details and the final product.” In contrast, an independent contractor is generally defined as “a worker who performs services for others, usually under contract, while at the same time retaining economic independence and complete control over both the method …

The Small-Er Screen: Youtube Vlogging And The Unequipped Child Entertainment Labor Laws, Amanda G. Riggio

Seattle University Law Review

Family vloggers are among the millions of content creators on YouTube. In general, vloggers frequently upload recorded videos of their daily lives. Family vloggers are unique because they focus their content around their familial relationships and the lives of their children. One set of family vloggers, the Ace Family, has recorded their children’s lives from the day they were born and continue to upload videos of each milestone, including “Elle Cries on Her First Rollercoaster Ride” and “Elle and Alaïa Get Caught Doing What!! **Hidden Camera**.” Another vlogging couple, Cole and Savannah LaBrant, post similar content, including videos titled “Baby …

License To Offend: How The Nlra Shields Perpetrators Of Discrimination In The Workplace, Molly Gibbons

Washington Law Review

Congress established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or the Board) to enforce the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or the Act) and ensure fair labor practices in workplaces across the United States. The NLRA protects employees from discipline while engaging in union activity. Under the NLRA, employers and unions must collectively bargain in good faith. Either party may only walk away from the table when another party’s conduct makes good faith bargaining impossible. However, the NLRB’s determination of what conduct constitutes bad faith bargaining and protected union speech is inconsistent with federal anti- discrimination laws. This discrepancy means employers …

Janus, Union Member Speech, And The Public Employee Speech Doctrine, M. Linton Wright

Pace Law Review

In Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (“AFSCME”), the Supreme Court held that public sector unions can no longer collect fees from nonmembers to fund the costs of representing them in collective bargaining and grievance proceedings. The Court determined that virtually all union speech is political speech and that collection of these fees is impermissible compelled speech under the First Amendment. However, not everything in Janus harms public union interests. The Janus Court’s discussion of Garcetti v. Cabellos and Connick v. Myers actually helps protect union member speech in the context of First Amendment retaliation cases. …

Joint Employment Under The Flsa, The Fourth Circuit's Decision To Be Different, Carl H. Petkoff

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Chronic Harm, Ann Kennedy

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

No abstract provided.

Alternative Remedies For Undocumented Workers Left Behind In A Post-Hoffman Plastic Era, Rachel S. Steber

Catholic University Law Review

Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in 1935 in order to level the bargaining power of employees and employers to prevent burdening the flow of commerce and depressing workers’ wages. The NLRA vests the administration of promulgating the goals of the NLRA in the National Labor Relations Board (Board), broadly stating that the Board should take such affirmative action as necessary to effectuate the policies of the Act.

In 1935, however, Congress could not predict the future demographic makeup of the American workforce, and in its definition of an “employee” as covered under the NLRA, the statute makes …

Survey Of (Mostly Outdated And Often Ineffective) Laws Affecting Work-Related Monitoring, Robert Sprague

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article reviews various laws that affect work-related monitoring. It reveals that most of our privacy laws were adopted well before smartphones and the Internet became ubiquitous; they still hunt for physical secluded locations; and, because they are based on reasonable expectations of privacy, they can easily be circumvented by employer policies that eliminate that expectation by informing workers they have no right to privacy in the workplace. This article concludes that the future—indeed the present—does not bode well for worker privacy.

Wage Theft As Public Larceny, Elizabeth J. Kennedy

Brooklyn Law Review

Home care for the elderly and disabled is a rapidly expanding industry in which structural and regulatory factors contribute to worker vulnerability and exploitation. Systemic exclusion from core federal employment and labor laws, as well as many state and local regulations, results in minimal consequences for employers who violate standards. Despite recent movement at the federal level to create a “new mindset” of rights and regulations, home care workers must be equipped with creative ways to enforce these new rights and to challenge existing gaps in enforcement. With the understanding that two-thirds of the home care industry is financed by …

Accommodating Labor And Antitrust, Stephen F. Ross

Utah OnLaw: The Utah Law Review Online Supplement

Short of its two critical premises—that sports labor restraints may harm players but benefit fans and the sport’s popularity, and that the Sherman Act must always step aside to protect the “entire collective bargaining process”—Professor LeRoy’s thorough research loses much of its normative force. This provocative contribution is particularly revealing in one respect that he does not explicitly mention, however, akin to Sherlock Holmes’ famous insight that the telling clue was that the sleeping dog did not bark.34 All of the lawsuits Professor LeRoy studied involved challenges by union-represented players; none involved challenges by the principal beneficiaries of the Sherman …

Swimming In The Crosscurrents Of History: Labor And Employment Law Under The Obama Administration, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt, Matthew Kelley

Indiana Law Journal

Labor and Employment Law Under the Obama Administration: A Time for Hope and Change? Symposium held November 12-13, 2010, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Bloomington, Indiana

Is The Breast Best For Business?: The Implications Of The Breastfeeding Promotion Act, Brit Mohler

William & Mary Business Law Review

In June of 2009, the 111th Congress was asked again to consider the Breastfeeding Promotion Act. During that year, for the first time in history, the Senate also took up consideration of the issue, and the President of the United States signed into legislation a portion of the Act as included in a healthcare bill. The Breastfeeding Promotion Act is meant to protect a woman’s right to breastfeed in the workplace. The Act accomplishes this goal by: amending the Civil Rights Act to ensure that breastfeeding will be considered a protected act in the workplace, amending the Fair Labor Standards …

Occupational Safety And Health Standards As Federal Law: The Hazards Of Haste, Robert D. Moran

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Privatizing Labor Law: Neutrality/Card Check Agreements And The Role Of The Arbitrator, Laura J. Cooper

Indiana Law Journal

William R. Stewart Lecture given at Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington on November 13, 2007.

The Parallel Worlds Of Corporate Governance And Labor Law, Peer Zumbansen

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This paper engages the concept of transnational law (TL) in a way that goes beyond the by now accustomed usages with regard to the development of legal norms and the observation of legal action across nation-state boundaries, involving both state and nonstate actors. The concept of TL can serve to illustrate much further-reaching set of developments in norm creation and legal regulation. TL is here understood not only as a body of legal norms, but it is also employed as a methodological approach to illustrate common and shared challenges and responses to legal regulatory systems worldwide. In the case of …

Labor Law, Robin Jean Davis, Louis J. Palmer Jr.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Bridging The Gap Between Work And Family: Accomplishing The Goals Of The Family And Medical Leave Act Of 1993, Emily A. Hayes

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

International Governance And Domestic Convergence In Labor Law As Seen From The American Midwest, Matthew W. Finkin

Indiana Law Journal

Symposium: New Rules for a New Game: Regulating Employment Relationships in the 21st Century, held at the Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington.

Response To Matthew W. Finkin And Catherine Barnard, Lynn Duggan

Indiana Law Journal

Symposium: New Rules for a New Game: Regulating Employment Relationships in the 21st Century, held at the Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington.

Business-Only E-Mail Policies In The Labor Organizing Context: It Is Time To Recognize Employee And Employer Rights, Allegra Kirsten Weiner

Federal Communications Law Journal

Cyberspace changed communication in the workplace. Now that employees are on employers' e-mail systems, union organizers can contact employees in the workplace, during working hours, without any of the obstacles that more traditional forms of union communication impose. Of course this new technologically-advanced labor organizing is ideal for the labor organizers, but it also interferes with the rights of employers. Which groups interests' prevail? Unfortunately there is no precedent. Normally, adherence to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decisions is the answer but no case has come before the NLRB that solves this issue. Therefore, employers and employees are left …

Private Amici Curaie And The Supreme Court's 1997-1998 Term Employment Law Jurisprudence, Andrew P. Morriss

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

The amicus curiae brief has become a common occurrence in today's legal arena, especially with the proliferation of private interest groups that specialize in numerous topics of political and social interest. The substantial increase in the use of amici briefs, however, has sparked criticism concerning both the costs (in effort and resources) associated with filing these griefs and the persuasive effect (or lack thereof) the briefs have on the Court. Much of this criticism arises from the failure of many interest groups to posit "legal" arguments that apply the facts of a given case to the law. Instead, the amici …

Labor Law - The Substance Of Procedure: Defining Judicial Authority And The Role Of The Arbitrator In Independent Association Of Continental Pilots V. Continental Airlines, Wendy A. Tyson

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.