Law Commons^™

Between The Buttons: Employer Distribution Of Antiunion Insignia, John W. Teeter Jr

Faculty Articles

Employers should be forbidden from offering antiunion insignia to their workers. This is not contrary to current labor rules that allow employers and their supervisors to wear insignia. The workers' rights would still be safeguarded because employees would remain free to buy or create their own antiunion insignia. The goal is to protect the right of workers to debate, campaign, and vote on unionization with no harm to legitimate needs for self expression.

Generally, workers are entitled to wear campaign insignia regardless of whether it supports or decries unionization. In this manner, workers can openly proclaim their beliefs and seek …

Watch Your E-Mail - Employee E-Mail Monitoring And Privacy Law In The Age Of The Electronic Sweatshop, 28 J. Marshall L. Rev. 139 (1994), Laurie Thomas Lee

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Beware The Toothless Tiger: Critique Of The Model Employment Termination Act, Kenneth A. Sprang

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Housework, Wages, And The Division Of Housework Time For Employed Spouses, Joni Hersch, Leslie S. Stratton

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

While the popular press may have declared housework passe with the advent of the two-income household (see "Housework is Obsolescent" by Barbara Ehrenreich [1993] for one such example), the facts indicate that housework continues to consume a substantial amount of time, particularly for women. While estimates vary widely depending on the sample examined and the methods used to generate the information, representative values of housework time range around 6-14 hours per week for men and 20-30 hours for women. Since wages are likely to be influenced both directly and indirectly by the time and effort devoted to other activities, and …

Struggling Through The Thicket: Section 301 And The Washington Supreme Court, Mark Adams

Articles

No abstract provided.

Unemployment Insurance: American Social Wage, Labor Organization And Legal Ideology, Kenneth M. Casebeer

Articles

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Rawls' Theory Of Liberty And Rights, James W. Nickel

Articles

No abstract provided.

A Discussion Of The Washington Industrial Safety And Health Act Of 1973 Presented As: A Preface To The University Of Puget Sound Law Review, Mark O. Brown

Seattle University Law Review

This Preface briefly describes WISHA, the problems of worker safety in Washington, and the role of Labor and Industries in working to solve those problems. In Section II, this Preface addresses the status of worker health and safety in Washington. Section III describes some unique Washington programs that are to be used to combat the problems of worker safety. Section IV describes the cooperative steps that employers and workers are taking to help solve safety problems. Section V identifies new legal standards that are coming to bear on the issue of worker safety. Section VI identifies new frontiers upon which …

The Washington Industrial Safety And Health Act: Wisha's Twentieth Anniversary, 1973-1993, Alan S. Paja

Seattle University Law Review

Occupational safety and health did not begin in 1973 in the State of Washington. Although the historical roots of the Washington Industrial Safety and Health Act of 1973 (WISHA) run deep, the adoption of the Act significantly affected the lives of all working men and women in the state. This Article will examine that historical perspective, covering both state and federal law, and will comprehensively detail the current law relating to occupational safety and health in the State of Wasington.

Liability For Prenatal Harm In The Workplace: The Need For Reform, Steven S. Paskal

Seattle University Law Review

This Article describes the causes of action available under current Washington law when a workplace hazard contributes to an adverse reproductive outcome such as miscarriage, birth defects, transplacental carcinogenesis, or other prenatal injury. Part II delineates the wide variety of workplace conditions that may lead to an adverse reproductive outcome, ranging from emotional stress, cigarette smoke, and fall hazards to more traditional teratogen exposures such as lead. Part III describes the types of reproductive harm that can form the basis of a lawsuit in Washington. Part IV notes the theories of liability and the potential defendants, including employers, co-employees, consultants, …

Comparative Analysis Of Labor Mediation Using A Bargaining Strength Model, Alvin L. Goldman

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Erisa Qualified Pension Plan Benefits As Property Of The Bankruptcy Estate: The Unanswered Questions After Patterson V. Shumate, Jack E. Karns

Campbell Law Review

To better understand the impact of Patterson, as well as future debates regarding conflict between state and federal law in the Bankruptcy Code, this article will review the underlying case law that set the stage for this judicial showdown. Part II specifically analyzes the competing case lines which excluded pension plan benefits from the bankruptcy estate. Part III briefly summarizes those cases which concluded that plan benefits must be included in the estate but may be subject to exemption under state or federal law. Part IV reviews the Patterson opinion in detail, as well as the issues and analysis …

Employment Discrimination: Recent Developments In The Supreme Court (Symposium: The Supreme Court And Local Government Law: The 1992-93 Term), Eileen Kaufman

Scholarly Works

At a symposium entitled, “The Supreme Court and Local Government Law; The 1992/93 Term”, Professor Eileen Kaufman spoke about the cases involving employment discrimination that were decided during that particular Term, Hazen Paper Company v. Biggins and St. Mary's Honor Center v. Hicks. While Hazen is an age discrimination case and St. Mary's is a Title VII case, they can be viewed as companion cases which serve to explain what an employment discrimination plaintiff must now establish when attempting to prove disparate treatment by indirect evidence. By way of preview, suffice it to say that plaintiff's task has been made …

The Faces Of Coercion: The Legal Regulation Of Labor Conflict In Ontario, 1880-1889, Eric Tucker

Articles & Book Chapters

This article is part of a larger study of Canadian labor law before the advent of statutory collective bargaining, which questions the traditional periodization and the meanings of the categories. It is often an un-articulated premise that the exercise by employers of their superior economic power, as imparted and structured through the law of property and contract, is not coercion. Rather, the analysis is restricted to direct state coercion, exercised through the criminal law, the police, and the injunction. This framework produces a partial view of the role of law and interferes with an analysis of the strategic choices made …

The Americans With Disabilities Act In The Unionized Workplace, Ann C. Hodges

Law Faculty Publications

This Article explores the issues raised by application of the ADA in the organized employment setting. The Article begins with an overview of the statute and then analyzes its applicability in the unionized workplace. In addition to recommending changes in the statute and regulations to clarify the obligations of employers and unions under the ADA, the Article makes recommendations with respect to judicial interpretation of the statute in three major areas. In Sections III C through E, the Article analyzes the circumstances under which the union should be held liable for discrimination, recommending that courts assess liability based on the …

A Call For Bright-Lines To Fix The Fair Labor Standards Act, Robert D. Lipman, Allison Plesur, Joel Katz

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Standard For Punitive Damages Under Title Vii, Judith J. Johnson

Journal Articles

Under the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the plaintiff in an employment discrimination case who alleges intentional discrimination may recover punitive damages if she demonstrates that her employer engaged in the discriminatory practice with "malice" or "reckless indifference" to federally protected rights. To prove a case of disparate treatment under Title VII, the plaintiff bears the burden of persuading the trier of fact that her employer intended to discriminate against her. In other words, to be liable in a disparate treatment case, the employer has to specifically intend to treat the plaintiff differently based, for example, on her sex. If …

Comparative Analysis Of Labor Mediation Using A Bargaining Strength Model, Alvin L. Goldman

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The comparison of different legal systems offers a number of analytical and research advantages, one of which is that it provides a laboratory for observing differences and similarities in the ways in which common regulatory and dispute resolution models operate in similar and dissimilar environments. This Essay uses that laboratory to illustrate how the bargaining strength model presented in Settling for More: Mastering Negotiation Strategies and Techniques can be applied in analyzing mediatory interventions and provide a better understanding of (a) how such interventions can be utilized most effectively, (b) when they are useful, (c) when they are superfluous, and …

Fair Notice: Assuring Victims Of Unfair Labor Practices That Their Rights Will Be Respected, John W. Teeter Jr

Faculty Articles

Employers should always be required to read notices aloud to their workers as a standard remedy for violations of the National Labor Relations Act. Such a remedy would be a small but essential step in redressing the harm inflicted on workers by an employer’s unfair labor practices. Such notices are necessary for a series of reasons. First, millions of Americans suffer from reading deficiencies and cannot comprehend a printed notice. Second, even literate employees may not happen to observe the printed notice at the workplace. Third, a mere piece of paper is unlikely to reassure victims of unfair labor practices …

Maintaining Order In The Post-Strike Workplace: Employee Expression And The Scope Of Section 7, Lyrissa Lidsky

Faculty Publications

In the aftermath of a typical strike, management often seeks to restore order to the workplace by imposing restrictions on employee expression. Although in principle employee expression is protected by section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, courts, relying on outdated notions of workplace organization, often accept ad hoc management justifications for restrictions on employee expression. The author argues that after a strike, it is crucial for employees to be able to express their grievances or vent their frustrations at exactly the same time that employers feel it necessary to restrict expression as a way of re-imposing order in …

Legal Problems Of Vocational And Professional Training During The Soviet Period Of Stagnation, Yuri I. Luryi

Cleveland State Law Review

This article investigates the legal methods used to regulate professional training under Soviet labor law. It will examine relevant norms of labor legislation, the views of Soviet labor law specialists, and existing practice.

Single-Employer Profit Sharing Plans: Should A Break In Service That Occurs Because Of A Natural Disaster Result In The Forfeiture Of A Plan Participant's Nonvested Profit Sharing Benefit, Marie Ellen Haynes

Cleveland State Law Review

Most profit sharing plans provide that the nonvested portion of an employee's profit sharing benefit can be forfeited when the employee incurs a break in service. A break in service often results in termination. Employees can also break their service with an employer by quitting, retiring, dying, becoming disabled, getting laid-off, or being discharged for cause. Some of these methods of incurring a break from service are voluntary while others are involuntary. Whether an employee's profit sharing benefit can be forfeited may depend on whether his break in service was voluntary or involuntary. The issue that will be addressed here …

Insulating Sexual Harassment Grievance Procedures From The Chilling Effect Of Defamation Litigation, Ruth A. Kennedy

Washington Law Review

The threat of defamation liability may undermine the push to encourage private employers to establish internal grievance procedures for handling sexual harassment complaints. Courts have recognized two defenses to defamation claims arising out of employers' sexual harassment investigations: the qualified privilege and the intracorporate immunity rule. Neither of these defenses adequately balances the need to insulate grievance procedures against the desire to protect the reputation of the employee accused of harassment. This Comment proposes the adoption of a new grievance procedure privilege which would ensure the integrity of grievance procedures while maximizing the protection afforded an accused employee.

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Employment Law, Paul G. Beers

University of Richmond Law Review

The focus of this article is upon employment law in Virginia during 1993 and the first half of 1994. In addition, significant judicial decisions from 1992 are covered. Workers' compensation and unemployment compensation are excluded as topics. Public sector employment law also lies outside the scope of this article. Nevertheless, two decisions of the Supreme Court of Virginia which involve public employees are analyzed. The most turbulent and rapidly evolving area of Virginia employment law lies in tort. The decisions discussed below indicate that employees stand only a modest chance of recovering against their employers in wrongful discharge suits based …

Washington's Industrial Safety Regulations: The Trend Towards Greater Protection For Workers, Stephen L. Bulzomi, John L. Messina, Jr.

Seattle University Law Review

This Article argues in support of the trend towards greater protection for workers through the deterrent factor of certain civil liability for WISHA violations resulting in injury. The Article begins by charting the evolution of Washington law on this issue. It then describes the current state of the law on this subject. Finally, it explains how Stute and its progeny are in line with the state's overall trend towards greater worker protection, consistent with the legislative intent of WISHA, and beneficial to not only employees, but employers as well.

Job Site Safety In Washington: Requiring Actual Control When Imposing Statutory Duties On Job Site Owners, Gregory J. Duff

Seattle University Law Review

The subject of this Comment is whether the actual control requirement in Hennig should also be employed to find liability in cases involving asserted statutory violations. This Comment argues that Washington courts should employ the same case-by-case control analysis used to impose the common law duty to provide a safe workplace to impose similar statutory duties on a job site owner. Part II of this Comment briefly identifies the possible sources of a job site owner's duties, including common law, contract, and statute. Part III explains the current status of job site owner liability in Washington. This Part carefully distinguishes …

Garcia V. Spun Steak Co.: The Ninth Circuit Requires That Title Vii Plaintiffs Prove The Adverse Effect Of A Challenged English-Only Workplace Rule, Dan Clawson

Seattle University Law Review

Although the Spun Steak decision recognizes that English-only rules may impact Title VII in some circumstances, the court held that an employer's good-faith imposition of these rules on fully bilingual employees does not violate Title VII. Section II of this Comment presents an overview of the substantive law and the enforcement mechanisms of Title VII. Section III outlines the development of federal discrimination law regarding English-only rules. Section IV examines the Spun Steak decision, and Section V analyzes the implications of this decision and its effect on discrimination law in the Ninth Circuit.

Cease And Desist Orders, Innis Christie

Innis Christie Collection

Cease and desist orders: practice and procedure. The issue of an interim cease and desist order in the context of an illegal strike is a very speedy procedure in Nova Scotia. Regulation 24 simply provides that where a complaint is made under section 49 "Form 14 shall be used...". Section 49(1) of the Act provides that "any person who claims to be involved in or affected by" an illegal work stoppage may make a complaint to the Board. Normally, of course the complainant will be an employer, and by Form 14 the complainant will request the Board to issue an …

Legal Problems Of Vocational And Professional Training During The Soviet Period Of Stagnation, Yuri I. Luryi

Cleveland State Law Review

This article investigates the legal methods used to regulate professional training under Soviet labor law. It will examine relevant norms of labor legislation, the views of Soviet labor law specialists, and existing practice.

Drug Testing/Use, Sandra S. Klein

Journal Articles

Drug testing is one of the most controversial of recent privacy issues. The bibliography which follows provides the reader with access to a wide range of discussion on this topic which is, or should be, of interest to everyone. Whether in our private lives, or on the job, drug use and drug testing will have an impact on every one of us.