Law Commons^™

Never Equals: Slavery, White Masculinities, And The Legacy Of Law In Today’S Workplace, Ann C. Mcginley

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This essay discusses two themes of Race Unequals: (1) the role of law in creating and reinforcing gendered, classed, and raced identities on plantations in the Antebellum South; and (2) the existence of slavery's legacy today in workplaces and the law's frequent failure to remedy its damaging tentacles. Part II describes masculinities studies from the social sciences and Multidimensional Masculinities Theory in law and applies the theory to analyze the first theme. Part III considers slavery's legacy in today's workplaces and analyzes employment discrimination law's shortcomings in eliminating racism in workplaces. The essay concludes that White masculinities, established in the …

Pandémie Et Travail De Plateforme: Réglementation Du « Lieu De Travail » Après Le Covid-19 Aux Usa [The Gig And The Platform: Regulating The “Workplace” After The Pandemic], Ruben J. Garcia

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No abstract provided.

Racial Pay Equity In “White” Collar Workplaces, Nantiya Ruan

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Part I outlines the many ways that corporate employers fail in racial equity efforts and the barriers that have been put into place to keep BIPOC workers from succeeding. Drawing from industrial organizational psychology and sociology, I identify six distinct challenges that must be remedied or ameliorated in order for BIPOC to achieve pay equity in the corporate climate. Part II identifies and analyzes the decades of litigation and class action settlements that have tried and failed to address the persistent lack of BIPOC representation in the financial industry. I categorize these cases into three waves of litigation intended to …

Work Hierarchies And Social Control Of Laborers, Nantiya Ruan

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Some labor dynamics transcend place and time: workers provide the labor; management oversees the work; owners capitalize on the fruits of that labor. This hierarchy repeats across nations, industries, and eras. The actors in these stories have set roles and a particular stage to act upon. We are familiar with a narrative wherein the worker is forced to toil under extreme conditions, the manager motivates the worker to produce faster and more, and the owner reaps the rewards. And we usually know where our sympathies lie.

Professor McMurtry-Chubb's latest book, Race Unequals: Overseer Contracts, White Masculinities, and the Formation of …

Work Hierarchies And The Social Control Of Workers, Nantiya Ruan

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Creighton Law Review Symposium on Professor Teri A. McMurtry-Chubb’s book, Race Unequals: Overseer Contracts, White Masculinities, and the Formation of Managerial Identity in the Plantation Economy.

Attorney Competence In The Algorithm Age, Nantiya Ruan

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No abstract provided.

Transcript Of Video File: Panel 4 - Severe Or Pervasive: Towards Empowering Workers, Ann C. Mcginley, Allegra Fishel, Alexis Ronickher, Joseph M. Sellers, Bernice Yeung

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This is a video transcript of a panel session in the Enhancing Anti-Discrimination Laws in Education and Employment symposium.

Looking South: Toward Principled Protection Of U.S. Workers, Ann C. Mcginley

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No abstract provided.

Laboratories Of Democracy: State Law As A Partial Solution To Workplace Harassment, Ann C. Mcginley

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This Article analyzes the substantive and procedural problems created by the federal judiciary in Title VII hostile work environment law that concurrently drains federal anti-harassment law of its meaning. The premise is that, at least for the near future, relying on federal courts and/or the U.S. Congress to protect employees' civil rights is likely fruitless. Instead, we should encourage state legislatures that seek to improve civil rights in employment in their own jurisdictions and state supreme courts to interpret their own state laws to recognize employees' civil rights to the fullest extent possible. Part II analyzes how federal courts decide …

The Human Right To Workplace Safety In A Pandemic, Ruben J. Garcia

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The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unique challenges for immigrant workers many of whom occupy jobs most at risk in the pandemic: heath care, janitorial services, and mass transit. This Article encourages the extension of human rights instruments protecting health and safety in the workplace to all workers, particularly immigrant workers. Garcia analyzes the options available for workers who confront unsafe working conditions under existing law. Expanding the language of “human right” will allow for greater scrutiny of actions taken by the government and employers. Garcia encourages statutory changes to OSHA and the NRLA, test cases, filing complaints under trade agreements, …

Feminist Perspectives On Bostock V. Clay County, Georgia, Ann C. Mcginley, Nicole Porter, Danielle Weatherby, Ryan Nelson, Pamela Wilkins, Catherine Archibald

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This jointly-authored essay is a conversation about the Supreme Court’s recent and groundbreaking decision (Bostock v. Clayton County) that held that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is discrimination based on sex, and therefore prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. While many scholars are writing about this case, we are doing something unique. We are analyzing this decision from feminist perspectives. We are the editors and four of the authors of a book recently published by Cambridge University Press: Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Employment Discrimination Opinions. This book contains fifteen Supreme Court and Courts …

Papercuts: Hierarchical Microaggressions In Law Schools, Nantiya Ruan

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The Article investigates law schools as locations of workplace fairness by examining its hierarchical structure and the power dynamics at work. Others have researched and written on the myriad ways in which “legal skills faculty” are treated unfairly as compared to those that primarily teach non-skills (or doctrinal classes) because of the subject matter that they teach and the assumptions that are made about their credentials and ability to contribute to the law school mission. Likewise, other scholars have critically examined the discrimination experienced by law school faculty members based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and other identities. What has …

Foreword: The Labor Constitution In 2020, Ruben J. Garcia

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No abstract provided.

Building Worker Collective Action Through Technology, Ruben J. Garcia

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The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the inequality between workers and their employers, and decreased worker power over their terms and conditions of employment. At the same time, the workers are more dispersed than ever, with more employers disestablishing the traditional office in favor of a hybrid model that further atomizes workers and makes collective action harder. At the same time, the ability for workers to organize themselves on social media and on company e-mail systems has been limited by recent decisions of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and are always subject to possible employer discovery and retaliation. New technologies …

The Original Roofing Co., Llc V. Chief Admin. Officer Of The Occupational Safety And Health Admin., 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 18 (Jun. 6, 2019), Riley Coggins

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court held that supervisors’ knowledge that their own conduct, or that of an employee under their supervision, violates NOSHA safety laws cannot be attributed to the employer unless the impermissible actions were foreseeable.

City Of Mesquite V. Eighth Jud. Dist. Ct., 135 Nev., Adv. Op. 33, Dylan Lawter

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The City of Mesquite asked the Court to determine which statute of limitations (“SOL”) applies to a local government employee's complaint alleging both that the employer breached the collective bargaining agreement and that the union breached its duty of fair representation. The City argued that the claims are subject to a six-month limitations period under Nevada’s Local Government Employee-Management Relations Act (“EMRA”). The Court declined to answer the question. Instead, it clarified that there is no private cause of action to enforce a claim against a union for breach of the duty of fair representation in the first instance. But, …

Patush V. Las Vegas Bistro, Llc, 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 46 (Sep. 26, 2019), Katrina Weil

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined that (1) claims for wrongful termination are subject to the limitations period from NRS § 11.190(4)(e) for injuries or death caused by another person’s wrongful act or neglect; and (2) attorney fees were not warranted under § NRS 18.010(2)(b) as the issue was one of first impression.

Bombardier Transp. Usa, Inc. V. Nev. Labor Comm’R; The Int’L Union Of Elevator Constructors; And Clark County, 135 Nev., Adv. Op. 3 (Jan. 17, 2019), Amanda Stafford

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court found Nevada’s wage law requirement for a “public work” applies to construction of the airport shuttle system. The Labor Commissioner did qualify the work as a “public work” because it is repair work and found that twenty percent of the work involved repair rather than maintenance so NRS § 338.010(15) does apply.

Politically Engaged Unionism: The Culinary Workers Union In Las Vegas, Ruben J. Garcia

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This chapter introduces the reader to "politically engaged unionism" as demonstrated by the bargaining successes of The Culinary Workers Union Local 226 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Professor Ruben J. Garcia provides a brief background of the union and its member demographics, arguing it can serve as a model for unions across the country.

Mandatory Arbitration Stymies Progress Towards Justice In Employment Law: Where To, #Metoo?, Jean R. Sternlight

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Today our employment law provides workers with far more protection than once existed with respect to hiring, firing, salary, and workplace conditions. Despite these gains, continued progress towards justice is currently in jeopardy due to companies’ imposition of mandatory arbitration on their employees. By denying their employees access to court, companies are causing employment law to stultify. This impacts all employees, but particularly harms the most vulnerable and oppressed members of our society for whom legal evolution is most important. If companies can continue to use mandatory arbitration to eradicate access to court, where judges are potentially influenced by social …

Mdc Rests. V. Eighth Jud. Dist. Ct., 132 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 76 (May 31, 2018), Jeff Chronister

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Health benefits," as considered by the Minimum Wage Act of the Nevada Constitution, must mean the equivalent of one extra dollar per hour in wages to the employee, but offered in the form of health insurance as opposed to dollar wages.

Dolores V. State, Dep’T Of Employment Sec. Div., 134 Nev. 34 (May 3, 2018), Xheni Ristani

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court considered whether, pursuant to NRS 612.380, an employee that resigns when faced with a resign-or-be-fired option does so voluntarily, and is thereby disqualified from unemployment benefits. The Court determined that where the record shows that the appellant’s decision to resign was freely given and stemming from his own choice, the resignation is voluntary.

Felton V. Douglas County, 134 Nev. Adv. Op. 6 (Feb. 15, 2018), Joshua Garry

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined that when an uncompensated volunteer, who has concurrent private employment and is injured during the course of volunteer work, shall have their average monthly wage for the purposes of workers’ compensation benefits to be the aggregate of the “deemed wage” provided by statute along with their earnings from the concurrent private employment.

The Masculinity Motivation, Ann C. Mcginley

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In this essay, Professor Ann McGinley explores a phenomenon she coins the Masculinity Motivation. Society and courts ignore that harassing behaviors and the motives behind them are nearly identical in schools and workplaces. Moreover, the motives driving same-sex harassment are often the same as those causing sex-based harassment of women and girls. These motives include proving the perpetrators' and their group's masculinity, punishing those who do not adhere to gender expectations, and upholding conventional gender norms. Professor McGinley advocates for courts to broadly define "because of sex" under Titles VII and IX by clarifying that harassment motivated to denigrate the …

Religious Freedom, Human Rights, And Peaceful Coexistence, Leslie C. Griffin

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At the Second Vatican Council, Fr. John Courtney Murray, S.J., persuaded the Catholic Church to abandon its long, and absolute, opposition to the separation of church and state. He brought a new concept of religious freedom to the Catholic Church. In honor of Murray, this essay looks at several current ways “religious freedom” harms individual rights.

The article describes the ministerial exception, which gives religious organizations the right to dismiss many employment discrimination lawsuits brought against them. It studies women’s right to contraceptive access, which has long been opposed by the Catholic hierarchy, and where employers have earned a legal …

Is There A Future For Work?, Wendi S. Lazar, Nantiya Ruan

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Neville, Jr. Vs. Eighth Judicial Dist. Court, 133 Nev. Adv. Op. 95 (Dec. 7, 2017), Anna Sichting

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court clarified that NRS 608.140 allows for private causes of action for unpaid wages based on the language discussing attorney fees in a private cause of action.

Sargeant V. Henderson Taxi, 133 Nev. Adv. Op. 27 (June 1, 2017), Ping Chang

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined that (1) a summary judgment is proper when the opposing party did not file a substantive opposition to the motion for summary judgment and (2) a class certification is inappropriate when the plaintiff/appellant did not meet the burden of demonstrating “numerosity, commonality, and typicality,” and the ability to “fairly and adequately” represent the class members when an earlier-filed grievance between the union and taxi company resolved the minimum wage back-pay dispute at issue.

Western Cab Co. V. Eighth Jud. Dist. Ct., 133 Nev. Adv. Op. 10, (Mar. 16, 2017), Sydney Campau

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

An employer challenged the validity of Nevada’s Minimum Wage Amendment (MWA). The Court held that (1) the MWA is not preempted by the NLRA, (2) the MWA is not preempted by ERISA, and (3) the MWA is not unconstitutionally vague. The Court declined to address factual issues related to the employer’s wage calculations.

Five Myths About Public Sector Labor Law In Nevada, Ruben J. Garcia

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The forces of collective bargaining reform in the 78th Nevada Legislative Session primarily set about to: (1) make it easier for employees not to pay anything to the unions that are required to represent them in negotiations and grievance handling and (2) eliminate the kinds of agreements and practices that purportedly have caused financial turmoil to the state as it emerges from the depths of the Great Recession. Unfortunately, many of these “reforms” were based on misconceptions about the role and effects of public sector collective bargaining in Nevada and in American society generally. In this article, I describe five …