Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

The Experiential Course Book I Have Been Waiting For, Martin J. Katz

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

There is an exciting movement toward practical legal education in U.S. law schools. There are many good reasons for this movement, including demand from students and potential students, as well as demand from the employers and clients that will hire those students. Additionally, a plethora of compelling studies strongly suggest that adults learn best through practical, contextual, experiential education.

Yet, many professors in U.S. law schools continue to teach using more traditional methods. There are a number of reasons for this. Perhaps the most widespread reason why professors hesitate to engage in experiential, or problem-based, teaching is the amount of …

The Winds Of Changes Shift: An Analyis Of Recent Growth In Bargaining Units And Representation Efforts In Higher Education, William A. Herbert

Publications and Research

This article analyzes data accumulated during the first three quarters of 2016 regarding completed and pending questions of representation involving faculty and student employees in higher education. It is part of a larger and continuing National Center research project that tracks faculty and graduate student employee unionization growth and representation efforts at private and public institutions of higher learning since January 1, 2013. The data presented in this article demonstrates that the rate of newly certified units at private colleges and universities since January 1, 2016 far outpaces new units in the public sector. There has been a 25.9% increase …

Paid Leave Policy: Recommendations For Mississippi, Harvard Law School

Delta Directions: Publications

Paid leave refers to a public or private program to compensate individuals when they miss time because of illness (paid sick leave), to tend to a newborn child (paid maternity and paternity leave), or to care for family members (paid family leave). As the law currently stands, the federal government provides unpaid leave in certain circumstances under the Family Medical Leave Act. Four states—New York, New Jersey, California, and Rhode Island—offer more comprehensive programs within their states. Mississippi not only offers no paid leave, but has a statewide policy limiting cities and towns from testing out their own paid leave …

Does Title Vii Work For Temps? Faush V. Tuesday Morning Reconsiders The Employment Relationship, Shane O'Halloran

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Cybersecurity Threat: Compliance And The Role Of Whistleblowers, Jennifer M. Pacella

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

In today’s technologically dependent world, concerns about cybersecurity, data breaches, and compromised personal information infiltrate the news almost daily. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently emerged as a regulator that is keenly focused on cybersecurity, specifically with respect to encouraging disclosures in this arena by regulated entities. Although the SEC has issued non-binding “guidance” to help companies navigate their reporting obligations in this sector, the agency lacks binding cybersecurity disclosure regulations as they pertain generally to public companies. Given that the SEC has already relied on such guidance in threatening enforcement actions, reporting companies are increasingly pressured for …

Bankruptcy: Where Attorneys Can Lose Big Even If They Win Big, Stanislav Veyber

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Historically, bankruptcy attorneys received the short end of the stick and were paid less for their services than attorneys in other fields of law. With the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978, Congress attempted to reduce the discrepancy in compensation. However, after the Supreme Court’s decision in Baker Botts v. ASARCO; L.L.C., the playing field remains unequal for bankruptcy attorneys. Following this decision, if a debtor disputes their attorney’s fee application, attorneys are at a disadvantage and cannot recover fees for defending their fee application. As a result, bankruptcy attorneys take an effective pay cut if they are faced with a …

Between The Hash Marks: The Absolute Power The Nfl’S Collective Bargaining Agreement Grants Its Commissioner, Eric L. Einhorn

Brooklyn Law Review

The National Football League has recently faced an onslaught of public criticism stemming from its handling of disciplinary matters over the last few years. This note engages in a comparative analysis of the disciplinary processes of the four major professional sports leagues, the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB), and National Hockey League (NHL), to determine why Commissioner Goodell’s disciplinary decisions have received such public criticism and have been challenged by the National Football League Players Association. While examining the cases of Tom Brady and Adrian Peterson, this note will address the question of …

Labor & Employment Law, W. Melvin Haas Iii, William M. Clifton Iii, W. Jonathan Martin Ii, Alyssa K. Peters

Mercer Law Review

This Article surveys revisions to the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (O.C.G.A.) and decisions interpreting Georgia law from June 1, 2015 to May 31, 2016 that affect labor and employment relations for Georgia employers.

Why The U.S. Coal Industry And Its Jobs Are Not Coming Back, James M. Van Nostrand

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Tthe Requirement Of Domestic Participation In New Mining Ventures In Zambia, Muna Ndulo

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Reply Brief. Lavigne V. Cajun Deep Foundations, L.L.C., 137 S.Ct. 1328 (2017) (No. 16-464), 2016 Wl 9443770, Eric Schnapper, J. Arthur Smith, Iii, Justin M. Delaune

Court Briefs

QUESTIONS PRESENTED (1) To establish a prima facie case of discriminatory termination, is a plaintiff required to show that he was replaced by someone outside his or her protected group?* (2) Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a plaintiff prior to:bringing a civil action must first file a charge with the EEOC, usually within 300 days of the action complained of. The Question Presented is: Where a claimant files a timely Title VII charge asserting that employer conduct was the result of a particular unlawful motive, may the claimant after the end of the charge-filing period …

The Nba's Deal With The Devil: The Antitrust Implications Of The 1999 Nba-Nbpa Collective Bargaining Agreement Note, Dan Messeloff

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Analyzing The Virginia Workers' Compensation Act's Governance Of Employer Non-Compliance, D. Paul Holdsworth

Law Student Publications

This essay attempts to resolve the current disconnect in the state judiciary‘s application of section 65.2-805(A) by analyzing the language of the statute as well as the various policy implications that undergird its establishment and accompany each interpretation. Part I provides a brief background of workers‘ compensation law generally, the Virginia Workers‘ Compensation Act (including section 65.2-805(A)), and the relevant case law involving section 65.2-805(A). Part II proceeds with the essay‘s argument, i.e., that section 65.2-805(A) should not be interpreted as imposing strict liability on non-compliant employers and thereby eliminating the obligation for a plaintiff-employee to plead a prima facie …

Leave And Marriage: The Flawed Progress Of Paternity Leave In The U.S. Military, T. J. Keefe

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Wage-Setting Institutions And Corporate Governance, Matthew Dimick, Neel Rao

Journal Articles

Why do corporate governance law and practice differ across countries? This paper explains how wage-setting institutions influence ownership structures and investor protection laws. In particular, we identify a nonmonotonic relationship between the level of centralization in wage-bargaining institutions and the level of ownership concentration and investor protection laws. As wage setting becomes more centralized, ownership concentration within firms at first becomes more, and then less, concentrated. In addition, the socially optimal level of investor protection laws is decreasing in ownership concentration. Thus, as wage-setting institutions become more centralized, investor protection laws become less and then more protective. This explanation is …

Information Technology And Learning On-The-Job, James Bessen

Faculty Scholarship

Economists disagree how much technology raises demand for workers with pre-existing skills. But technology might affect wages another way: through skills learned on the job. Using instrumental variables on 9 panels of workers from 1989 to 2013, this paper estimates that workers who use information technology (IT) have wage growth that is about 2% greater than non-IT workers, all else equal, implying substantial learning. This effect persists over time, implying sustained productivity growth from IT. Also, it benefits workers both with and without college degrees. Because many more college-educated workers use IT, college wages grow faster, contributing to economic inequality.

Pregnancy, Thomas E. Simmons

Thomas E. Simmons

No abstract provided.

Maximizing Opportunity, Minimizing Risk: Aligning Law, Policy And Practice To Strengthen Work-Integrated Learning In Ontario, Joseph F. Turcotte, Leslie Nichols, Lisa Philipps

Lisa Philipps

A broad consensus is emerging in Ontario and at the federal level in favour of expanding postsecondary students’ access to experiential or “work-integrated learning” (WIL) opportunities. One of the challenges in implementing this vision is navigating the complex legal status of students as they leave campus and enter workplaces in a wide range of industries and roles. This study aims to support these efforts by mapping the current legal landscape for WIL to identify both risks and opportunities for students, post-secondary institutions (PSIs) and placement hosts alike (referred to collectively in this study as “WIL participants”). It makes recommendations to …

Mdc Rests. V. Eighth Jud. Dist. Ct., 132 Nev. Adv. Op. 76 (Oct. 27, 2016), Alysa Grimes

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

To “provide” health benefits under the Minimum Wage Amendment, an employer need only offer to employees (rather than enroll them in) a qualifying health benefit plan. Tips are not included in an employee’s gross taxable income for calculating maximum health benefit plan premiums.

Perry V. Terrible Herbst, Inc., Nev. Adv. Op. 75 (Oct. 27, 2016), Wesley Lemay Jr.

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Minimum Wage Amendment (MWA) of the Nevada Constitution does not have a specific statute of limitations provision. Because the MWA is closely analogous to recovery for back pay under NRS 608.260, the two-year statute of limitations provision in NRS 608.260 applies, and not the catch-all four-year period from NRS 11.220.

Limited License Legal Technicians: Non-Lawyers Get Access To The Legal Profession, But Clients Won’T Get Access To Justice, Julian Aprile

Seattle University Law Review

Washington Limited License Legal Technicians (LLLTs) are non-lawyers who will supposedly help to close “the wide and ever-growing gap in necessary legal and law related services for low and moderate income persons.” However, LLLTs will not close the access to justice gap because “[t]here are no protections . . . to ensure that legal technicians will actually provide services to the poor, as opposed to selling their services to those who can most afford them,” and LLLTs are “not going to have the competency to actually do for the poor what needs to be done.”

Additionally, the modifications of the …

Employee Or Entrepreneur?, Jeffrey M. Hirsch

Jeffrey M. Hirsch

No abstract provided.

Taking State Property Rights Out Of Federal Labor Law, Jeffrey M. Hirsch

Jeffrey M. Hirsch

The National Labor Relations Board's current analysis of union organizers' right to access employer property relies heavily on an employer's right to exclude under state property law. If the employer possesses this right, an attempt to exclude organizers is generally lawful; if the employer lacks this right, the attempt is unlawful. This scheme makes little sense doctrinally, as an employer's property interests are usually irrelevant to the issue that should be the Board's primary concern— whether the removal of union organizers interferes with employees' federal labor rights. I propose eliminating consideration of state property rights from right-to-access cases. Instead, the …

The Law Of Termination: Doing More With Less, Jeffrey M. Hirsch

Jeffrey M. Hirsch

No abstract provided.

Comparative Wrongful Dismissal Law: Reassessing American Exceptionalism, Samuel Estreicher, Jeffrey M. Hirsch

Jeffrey M. Hirsch

Commentators have long debated the merits of the United States’ “at-will” rule, which allows employers and employees to end the employment relationship without cause or notice, absent a constitutional, statutory, or public policy exception. One premise for both proponents and opponents of at-will employment is to stress the uniqueness of this default among other developed countries, which generally require “cause” for most dismissals. Although other countries’ cause regimes differ significantly from the U.S. on paper, this Article addresses whether those differences in normative law also reflect differences in employees’ protection against wrongful termination in reality. The existing literature on dismissal …

Slavery Under The Thirteenth Amendment: Race And The Law Of Crime And Punishment In The Post-Civil War South, Peter Wallenstein

Louisiana Law Review

The article discusses how the Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution expressly permitted a recurrence of slavery, provided only that such enslavement constitutes a punishment for violating a criminal statute. It reports new forms of slavery that spread across the South in ways more or less consistent with the language of the Thirteenth Amendment.

The Customer Is Not Always Right: Balancing Worker And Customer Welfare In Antitrust Law, Clayton J. Masterman

Journal Articles

A natural consequence of employer restraints of trade that decrease wages is lower prices. Under antitrust law, courts evaluate most such restraints of trade under the rule of reason. This Note argues that the rule of reason’s focus on consumer welfare and the natural price decrease that follows from employer restraints of trade cause underenforcement of antitrust law against anticompetitive employer conduct. Such a result is anomalous, because the consumer welfare standard that permeates antitrust law should protect employees as much as customers that purchase goods.

To solve the under-enforcement problem, this Note proposes that courts analyzing a restraint of …

Initiative And Referendum: A Maine Odyssey, Charles A. Scontras

Bureau of Labor Education

Maine is no stranger to the nation’s battles involving the development of the tools of direct democracy and how to use them. Since the citizen initiative and referendum were passed in late 1908, Mainers have used “the power of the people” to vote directly on many laws, bypassing the Legislature. Now, after more than 100 years in use, the initiative process may be facing a test: Gov. Paul LePage is preparing blueprints to use the initiative in an attempt to change the state’s welfare system and reduce the income tax — victories denied to him in the Legislature. It’s a …

I Swear! From Shoptalk To Social Media: The Top Ten National Labor Relations Board Profanity Cases, Christine Neylon O'Brien

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Article curates and analyzes ten recent cases where the NLRB decided whether or not § 7 protected employee swearing, with a view toward defining the implications of these decisions for employers and employees in terms of employer rules and discipline, and employee rights and limits thereon. The Article outlines the NLRB’s role and perspective in cases where employees are disciplined or discharged for engaging in profanity at work and/or on social media when the conduct in question is otherwise protected concerted activity. The Article summarizes the facts in each case while analyzing the legal framework that the NLRB …

A Long Journey To Secure Permanent Overtime Rights For California Domestic Workers, Hina B. Shah

GGU Law Review Blog

Domestic workers are crucial part of the economic and social fabric of our country. However, isolated and hidden behind closed doors and mostly unprotected under the law, domestic workers face harsh working conditions.