Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

Carrying Little Sticks: Is There A ‘Deterrence Gap’ In Employment Standards Enforcement In Ontario, Canada?, Eric Tucker, Leah F. Vosko, Mark P. Thomas, Rebecca Casey, John Grundy, Andrea M. Noack

Articles & Book Chapters

This article assesses whether a deterrence gap exists in the enforcement of the Ontario Employment Standards Act (ESA), which sets minimum conditions of employment in areas such as minimum wage, overtime pay and leaves. Drawing on a unique administrative data set, the paper measures the use of deterrence in Ontario’s ESA enforcement regime against the role of deterrence within two influential models of enforcement: responsive regulation and strategic enforcement. The article finds that the use of deterrence is below its prescribed role in either model of enforcement. We conclude that there is a deterrence gap in Ontario.

Where Breaking Glass Ceilings Leads To Glass Walls: Gender-Disparate Managerial Decision-Making Power And Authority, Bina Nayee

Fordham Law Review

Today, litigation over plainly discriminatory employment practices is much less common than it was in the two decades following Title VII’s enactment as employers have largely reformed practices that most obviously violate employment discrimination law. But many less obvious employment practices, particularly those embedded in implicit bias or unconscious sex stereotyping, remain. One example is employers’ distribution of managerial decision-making power and authority based on assumptions about sex. Although this particular employment practice has not yet been litigated, there is a strong argument that a legal challenge to this practice could succeed. This Note argues that female managers can ...

Brief To The National Labor Relations Board By Amicus Curiae Professor Jeffrey M. Hirsch, Jeffrey M. Hirsch

Faculty Publications

In Purple Communications, Inc., 361 N.L.R.B. 1050 (2014), the NLRB set forth a new analysis covering employees’ use of employer-provided email. Under this analysis, which is based on the Supreme Court’s seminal decision in Republic Aviation Corp. v. NLRB, 324 U.S. 793 (1945), the Board presumes that employees who have access to their employer’s email as part of their work duties can use that email for Section 7 purposes during nonwork time. Purple Communications, 361 N.L.R.B. at 1063. The employer can rebut this presumption by showing that special business circumstances justify ...

Admission Of Deaf Soldiers To The Military: Rethinking The "Undifferentiated Soldier" Paradigm, Michael Schwartz

Arkansas Law Review

Keith Nolan, a deaf man with undergraduate and graduate degrees, asked to be admitted to military training to become a uniformed American soldier. The military said no, and the issue was joined. Nolan’s application presents the Department of Defense (DOD) with an opportunity to reconsider its historical bar to people who are deaf. The Article suggests a new paradigm in thinking about the selection criteria used to screen out deaf applicants for military service, a paradigm rooted in a disability studies framework. With a few exceptions in the Civil War, the United States armed forces have barred people with ...

Moral Context And Risks Of Death, Dov Waisman

Arkansas Law Review

When an industry poses a risk of premature death to consumers, workers, or others, regulatory agencies employ a figure known as the “value of a statistical life” (VSL) to monetize the life-saving benefit of regulations designed to reduce that risk. Use of the VSL, which currently hovers around $9 million, has been highly controversial. While a number of prominent scholars have vigorously endorsed the VSL as necessary to the cost-benefit analysis of mortality risk regulations, other prominent scholars have vehemently rejected the very idea of attaching a monetary value to a statistical human life. This article stakes out a novel ...

Employment By Design: Employees, Independent Contractors And The Theory Of The Firm, Richard R. Carlson

Arkansas Law Review

Employment laws protect “employees” and impose duties on their “employers.” In the modern working world, however, “employee” and “employer” status is not always clear. The status of some workers and the firms they serve can be ambiguous, especially when the workers work as individuals not organized as firms. Individual workers might be “employees,” but they might also be self-employed individuals working as “independent contractors.” Even if it is clear that workers are someone’s “employees,” the identity of the employer can be unclear. If one firm pays “employees” to work mainly or exclusively for another firm that pays the first ...

Finishing The Job Best Practices For A Diverse Workforce In The Construction Industry V.8 Sept 2018, Susan Moir Scd

Labor Studies Faculty Publication Series

This manual is a work in progress. It is produced by the Policy Group on Tradeswomen’s Issues (PGTI), a regional collaboration of researchers, government agencies, unions, community-based organizations, developers and contractors committed to increasing access for women and people of color to good paying careers in the construction trades. Our goal is to make our shared efforts and experiences helpful to industry leaders who share our commitment. It is based on best practices developed on major projects that came close, met, or exceeded workforce hiring goals. This manual and additional resources are available online at on the PGTI website ...

If Anti-Discrimination Laws Are On The Books, Then Why Do Women Not Sue? A Look Into The Almost Absent Gender Discrimination Litigation In Brazil, Cesar Zucatti Pritsch

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Si Hay Leyes De Antidiscriminiciòn ¿Por Qué Las Mujeres No Demandan Justicia? Una Mirada Al Litigo De Discriminaciòn De Género Casi Ausente En Brasil, Cesar Zucatti Pritsch

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

How To End “Illegal Immigration”, Kari E. Hong

Boston College Law School Faculty Papers

Since President Trump has taken office, it is clearer than ever that there are two ways to end “illegal immigration.” The first route — started by President Obama and ratcheted up by President Trump with relentless cruelty — is an actual effort to deport millions and exclude millions more. The second is to legalize those without status who have been, are, and will continue to contribute to America’s families, communities, and future.

This essay argues that the latter choice, restoring the paths to legalization that once were part of our nation’s laws, is the only realistic way forward to restore ...

The Perfect Play: Why The Fair Labor Standards Act Covers Division I Men’S Basketball And Football Players, Richard Smith Jr.

Catholic University Law Review

An emerging labor and employment issue during the last decade—and one which has yet to be conclusively decided—is whether college athletes are employees of the colleges and universities for which they compete. The most employed attack by college athletes has been to attempt to gain coverage under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which would allow the athletes to unionize and collectively bargain with the colleges and universities. However, this method has been largely unsuccessful, and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision denying coverage does not provide any hope that future attempts under the NLRA will be ...

Analytical Nightmare: The Materially Adverse Action Requirement In Disparate Treatment Cases, Esperanza N. Sanchez

Catholic University Law Review

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 expressly prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of an individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Since its passage, however, federal courts have imported an adverse employment action requirement into Title VII jurisprudence despite its absence from the statutory language. Inconsistent determinations as to which employment actions qualify as sufficiently adverse under Title VII have resulted in an analytical confusion, yielding anemic anti-discrimination protections that, in effect, shelter invidious employment practices from liability. This Note argues that the anti-discrimination jurisprudence surrounding the adverse action requirement diametrically opposes both the ...

Mandatory Agency Dues: Beneficial Or A First Amendment Violation?, Steph Nathaniel

GGU Law Review Blog

Unions have long been recognized as a major cornerstone to American culture – they have helped ensure fair wages, hours, and benefits for American workers for over a century. However, the question has continuously come up in legal discourse of whether unions modernly maintain their importance and effectiveness as exclusive bargaining representatives. This question raises an array of issues – one of those being whether public employees should be required to pay union dues when they are not members and do not support the union.

A case recently before the Supreme Court could end laws in 22 states that requires public employees ...

How Irrational Actors In The Ceo Suite Affect Corporate Governance, Renee M. Jones

Boston College Law School Faculty Papers

No abstract provided.

Holding Ridesharing Companies Accountable In Texas, Martha Alejandra Salas

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

Effects Of Senate Bill 4 On Wage-Theft: Why All Workers Are At Risk In Low-Income Occupations, Daniella Salas-Chacon

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming

A Look At Inequality, Workers’ Rights, And Race, William E. Spriggs

Law & Inequality: A Journal of Theory and Practice

No abstract provided.

A Conversation On Learning From The History Of The Civil Rights Movement, Walter F. Mondale

Law & Inequality: A Journal of Theory and Practice

Introduction & Abridged Transcript, The Summit for Civil Rights, November 10, 2017

Workplace Privacy In The Age Of Social Media, Tess Traylor-Notaro

The Global Business Law Review

This note addresses the lack of adequate protections in Ohio for social media privacy laws in the workplace and compares proposed legislation in Ohio to legislation that has passed in other states. It examines the provision of the SCA including the definition of "user" and whether social media sites fall under its umbrella. It also looks at the safeguards and limitations of the SCA and how it is used to protect a private employee’s social media account. It analyzes the state statutory laws in Arkansas, Illinois, and California passed specifically to prevent employers from requesting passwords to personal Internet ...

Healthcare Promises For Public Employees, Natalya Shnitser

Boston College Law School Faculty Papers

State and local governments have promised nearly $1 trillion in retiree healthcare benefits to public employees. Although retiree healthcare benefits represent a form of compensation, historically, state and local governments have not set aside any money to pay for the promised benefits. Compensating employees with promises of future benefits has enabled state legislatures to use public dollars for other priorities, while ignoring the growing liabilities associated with the healthcare promises. As these liabilities have come due, they have strained state and local budgets. Some public employers have simply cut the benefits, and public employees have had limited recourse to hold ...