Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 11 of 11

Full-Text Articles in Law

Two Sides Of The Same Coin: Examining The Misclassification Of Workers As Independent Contractors, Julia H. Weaver Jan 2021

Two Sides Of The Same Coin: Examining The Misclassification Of Workers As Independent Contractors, Julia H. Weaver

Georgia Law Review

Under current National Labor Relations Board
interpretations of the National Labor Relations Act, employers
may only be punished for misclassifying their employees as
independent contractors if a separate violation of the NLRA is
present. As the U.S. economy increasingly focuses on gig work,
millions of workers are affected by misclassification, which
results in lower pay and fewer employment protections.
Misclassification also strips the government of billions of
dollars in tax revenue.
The NLRB considered the issue of making the
misclassification of employees a standalone violation of Section
8(a)(1) of the NLRA in the case Velox Express, Inc., yet it
declined …


Mopping Up The Mess: A Call To Adopt The Seventh Circuit’S Standard For Assessing Comparator Evidence In Title Vii Discrimination Claims, Alexander S. Edmonds Jan 2021

Mopping Up The Mess: A Call To Adopt The Seventh Circuit’S Standard For Assessing Comparator Evidence In Title Vii Discrimination Claims, Alexander S. Edmonds

Georgia Law Review

In McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, the U.S. Supreme
Court developed a framework to assist courts in assessing
individual disparate treatment claims based on
circumstantial evidence. Under that test, plaintiffs alleging
discrimination under Title VII must first show a prima facie
case of discrimination. Since McDonnell Douglas, courts have
modified the test by requiring plaintiffs to demonstrate that
they were treated less favorably than a similarly situated
comparator employee who is outside the plaintiff’s protected
class. Courts disagree, however, on what it means for
employees to be similarly situated. Some courts strictly
interpret the similarly situated requirement; others caution
against …


The Lost Approach To Flsa Settlement Agreements: A Freedom-Of-Contract Approach, Madison G. Conkel Jan 2021

The Lost Approach To Flsa Settlement Agreements: A Freedom-Of-Contract Approach, Madison G. Conkel

Georgia Law Review

In jurisdictions that require judicial oversight of Fair Labor
Standards Act settlement agreements, a question lingers: What
exactly should judges review? Some judges have begun
categorically striking confidentiality provisions from
settlement agreements by pointing to the purposes and goals of
the FLSA. The academic community lauds these courts’ efforts
to prevent employers from mandating employees’ silence about
the terms of their settlement agreements. This Note, however,
makes the counterargument: confidentiality provisions should
be permitted in FLSA settlements agreements as a bargaining
chip for employees who bring individual suits. If higher courts
in a given jurisdiction require judicial oversight of these …


State Of The Unions: The Impact Of Janus On Public University Student Fees, Jonathan Kaufman Jan 2020

State Of The Unions: The Impact Of Janus On Public University Student Fees, Jonathan Kaufman

Georgia Law Review

In Janus v. American Federation of State, County,
and Municipal Employees, Council 31, the U.S.
Supreme Court overruled forty-one years of precedent
that had allowed public-sector unions to collect
agency-shop fees from nonmembers. The Court ruled this
mandatory fee collection unconstitutional as a violation
of nonmember First Amendment rights. This decision
may pose problems for other public entities, such as
public universities, who also collect mandatory fees that
support political speech.


Poached Eggs: The Misclassification Of Egg Donors As Independent Contractors And How Egg Donors Can Contribute To The Argument For A New Category Of Worker-The Dependent Contractor, Carol L. Williamson Jan 2016

Poached Eggs: The Misclassification Of Egg Donors As Independent Contractors And How Egg Donors Can Contribute To The Argument For A New Category Of Worker-The Dependent Contractor, Carol L. Williamson

Georgia Law Review

As the growth in demand for egg donors is met with an
increasing number of women willing to supply their eggs,
changes need to be made to the way egg donors, and other
similarly situated workers, are classified in the
employment context. Most donor contracts are employer-
created forms that designate the donors as independent
contractors and thus spare the clinic the duty of providing
employment benefits. Unlike other on-demand service
providers, such as Uber-drivers, that have recently sought
re-classification as employees, women who donate eggs are
subject to physically invasive procedures and long-term
health risks that particularly obviate the …


How The Meaning Of Incorporation Over Time Lends Support For Corporate Free Exercise Rights, Emily C. Cook Jan 2014

How The Meaning Of Incorporation Over Time Lends Support For Corporate Free Exercise Rights, Emily C. Cook

Georgia Law Review

Incorporated churches, mosques, synagogues, and the like enjoy the same protection as individuals under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. What about corporationsthat strive to follow religiousprinciples while earning profits? Do these corporations possess free exercise rights? This question has surfaced in response to a provision in the Affordable Care Act requiring employment- based group health plans to provide health insurance coverage for certain FDA-approved contraceptive methods. Numerous for-profit corporations that adhere to religious faiths that consider these contraceptive methods sinful have challenged the ACA provision as an undue burden on their free exercise because it forces them …


Where Do We Go Now? The Uncertain Future For 29 U.S.C. § 1301(B)(1), Private Equity Funds, And Multiemployer Pension Plans After Sun Capita, Crighton T. Allen Jan 2014

Where Do We Go Now? The Uncertain Future For 29 U.S.C. § 1301(B)(1), Private Equity Funds, And Multiemployer Pension Plans After Sun Capita, Crighton T. Allen

Georgia Law Review

The United States faces a growing problem concerning corporate indebtedness to pension plans, specifically, multi-employer pension plans (MEPPs). MEPPs are group pension plans in which a number of employers join together to contribute to a fund benefitting all employees of the participating companies. If an employer seeks to withdraw from a MEPP by ceasing to contribute into it, the company faces a withdrawal penalty-its proportionate share of the plan's vested but unfunded benefits. The recent decision by the First Circuit in Sun Capital Partners III, LP v. New England Teamsters & Trucking Industry Pension Fund has the potential to greatly …


Enforceability Of Choice-Of-Law Clauses In The Context Of Misclassification Litigation: Bridging The Gap Between Worker And Employer, Koleen S. Sullivan Jan 2013

Enforceability Of Choice-Of-Law Clauses In The Context Of Misclassification Litigation: Bridging The Gap Between Worker And Employer, Koleen S. Sullivan

Georgia Law Review

Picture this: a California resident working in California
files suit against the employer for allegedly misclassifying
the worker as an independent contractor instead of an
employee. The employer is headquartered in Georgia and
the worker has signed an employment contract including a
choice-of-law clause selecting Georgia law. Does Georgia
law apply? If the language of the clause is broad enough
to include a misclassification claim, perhaps. What if the
application of Georgia law violates California public
policy? The answer to this is almost assuredly a
resounding "no." But should Georgia law apply?
This Note argues that it should, under the …


Gina, Privacy, And Antisubordination, Bradley A. Areheart Jan 2012

Gina, Privacy, And Antisubordination, Bradley A. Areheart

Georgia Law Review

This Essay briefly considers both the current and
optimal role of privacy in employment discrimination
jurisprudence. The recently-passed Genetic Information
Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) is illustrative of a possible
trend in employment discrimination toward privacy. In
particular, GINA includes a prohibition on the use of
genetic information in all employment decisions, affording
a measure of genetic privacy to potential and current
employees.
GINA stands in contrast to prior employment
discrimination statutes, which have often encouraged or
required employers to be knowledgeable of and consider a
particular identity trait through policies such as
reasonable accommodation, affirmative action, and the
disparate impact doctrine. …


Balancing The Scales: Reforming Georgia's Common Law In Evaluating Restrictive Covenants Ancillary To Employment Contracts, Alan F. Pryor Jan 2012

Balancing The Scales: Reforming Georgia's Common Law In Evaluating Restrictive Covenants Ancillary To Employment Contracts, Alan F. Pryor

Georgia Law Review

Crafting effective and enforceable restrictive covenants
ancillary to employment contracts has befuddled and
vexed attorneys, courts, and businesses in Georgia for
decades. Tracing its development through more than four
hundred years of judicial decisions, Georgia's common law
has grown increasingly contradictory, confusing, and
convoluted. Until the passage of the Restrictive Covenant
Act, Georgia judges grew increasingly hostile to restrictive
covenants; however, they failed to maintain a coherent set
of guidelines for evaluating such covenants. The
Restrictive Covenant Act marks a turning point in Georgia
employment law, and this Note provides a defense of the
Act.
The Restrictive Covenant Act is …


A Taxonomy Of Virtual Work, Miriam A. Cherry Jan 2011

A Taxonomy Of Virtual Work, Miriam A. Cherry

Georgia Law Review

Millions of people worldwide entertain themselves or
supplement their incomes-or both-by meeting with
fellow employees as avatars in virtual worlds such as
Second Life, solving complicated problems on websites like
Innocentive, or casually "clicking" to make money for
simple tasks on Amazon.com's Mechanical Turk. Virtual
work has great promise- increasing efficiency by reducing
the time and expense involved in gathering workers who
live great distances apart,and allowing for efficient use of
skills so that the whole is truly greater than the sum of its
parts. At the same time, virtual work presents its own
unique series of challenges, and regulation …