Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

“You Don’T Bring Me Flowers Anymore”: President Clinton, Paula Jones, And Why Courts Should Expand The Definition Of “Adverse Employment Action” Under Title Vii’S Anti-Retaliation Provision, Lawrence Rosenthal

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Anti-discrimination statutes such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”), the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”) prohibit discrimination based on individuals’ protected characteristics. In addition to prohibiting this type of status-based discrimination, these statutes also prohibit employers from retaliating against employees who assert their rights under the statutes or who assist others in asserting their rights.

Over the past several years, retaliation charges filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) have made up an increasingly high percentage of all charges filed with the agency. Specifically, …

Nothing Is Inevitable: A Rejection Of The Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine Under The Defend Trade Secrets Act, Jacqueline R. Mancini

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Until June 2013, Manish Desai worked for Molon Motor and Coil Corporation (“Molon”) as Head of Quality Control. In June of that year, Desai left Molon to take a position with a competitor of Molon, Nidec Motor Corporation (“Nidec”). Molon brought suit against Nidec for trade secret misappropriation and alleged that Desai copied confidential information onto a flash drive before his departure. Based on these allegations, Molon argued not only that Desai unlawfully disclosed its trade secrets but also that “Nidec used and continues to use that information.” Molon brought suit under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act and …

Gig Workers As Essential Workers: How To Correct The Gig Economy Beyond The Covid-19 Pandemic, Miriam A. Cherry, Ana Santos Rutschman

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, estimates suggest that approximately forty percent of U.S. workers shifted to working remotely from home. But for many gig workers, who performed grocery shopping for Instacart, delivered food and restaurant meals for DoorDash, or who picked up and delivered packages for Shipt, they were working in person and busier than ever. In fact, many of these gig jobs were considered "essential work," and the rules of state lockdowns across the country classified gig workers as "essential workers."

Paid by the task, and managed by algorithms that can automatically deactivate …

Corporate Social Responsibility And Crowdwashing In The Gig Economy, Miriam A. Cherry

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Within this Article, I elaborate on the term “crowdwashing,” a neologism. Even though many online platforms describe themselves as “communities” that are part of the “sharing economy,” this “sharing” terminology is largely a misnomer when describing the activities of larger commercialized on-demand platforms. Rather than referring to volunteer efforts for collective benefit, many references to “sharing” in the “sharing economy” refer to the concept of commodification of previously underutilized assets. For example, consider receiving money for the rental of a spare bedroom through AirBnB or the sale of small, previously unproductive periods of time to complete tasks on Amazon’s …

The Gamification Of Work, Miriam A. Cherry

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In the science fiction novel Ender's Game, a young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, believes that he is at military school, learning how to play a computer war simulation game. In reality, Ender has been genetically engineered to excel in military tactics and is the final hope of humanity, which is under attack by the Formics, an alien insect species. For his final examination, Ender must defend the Earth from a series of attacks. He passes the exam by attempting a desperate aggressive maneuver, which utterly wipes out the attacker's home world but which also destroys part of his …

The Global Dimensions Of Virtual Work, Miriam A. Cherry

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Recently, unusual “factories” have appeared in Third World countries; these factories do not manufacture goods, but instead feature computer workers, typing and clicking away, playing video games, collecting coins and swords, and fighting monsters. Known as “gold farmers,” these workers are paid to harvest virtual treasures for online gamers in the developed world. First World gamers want to advance quickly within their online role-paying games of choice and, tired of the repetitive tasks necessary to build a high-level character, would prefer to pay others to do the work. As a result, gold farming operations have appeared in many countries …

Working (With) Workers: Implementing Theory, Miriam A. Cherry

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

The topic of this symposium issue sponsored by the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) is the role of the labor and employment law professor as a public intellectual. Despite the baggage accompanying the phrase "public intellectual," the symposium topic is an important one, for the term carries more meaning than a mere "talking head" or "media figure" can express. To make theoretical ideas more accessible to others, to connect theory and practice, to explain academic or scholarly ideas in a way that the public can understand—these ideas resonate with my philosophy of the law professor's role. In fact, …