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Full-Text Articles in Law
Wrongful Discharge: The Use Of Federal Law As A Source Of Public Policy, Nancy M. Modesitt
Wrongful Discharge: The Use Of Federal Law As A Source Of Public Policy, Nancy M. Modesitt
All Faculty Scholarship
Wrongful discharge in violation of public policy circumscribes the employment at-will doctrine by prohibiting employers from firing employees who engage in conduct that is deemed to be protected by state or federal public policy. While much has been written about the pros and cons of such wrongful discharge claims, to date no scholarship has focused on the problems that arise when the source of public policy is a federal rather than state statute. This article analyzes the historical and current approaches to the use of federal statutes as a source of public policy to protect employees against discharge, concluding that …
Flying Without A Statutory Basis: Why Mcdonnell Douglas Is Not Justified By Any Statutory Construction Methodology, Sandra F. Sperino
Flying Without A Statutory Basis: Why Mcdonnell Douglas Is Not Justified By Any Statutory Construction Methodology, Sandra F. Sperino
Faculty Articles and Other Publications
The McDonnell-Douglas three-part burden-shifting framework has come under increasing attack in recent years. While policy arguments in favor of eliminating the standard are important, one of the strongest arguments in favor if its demise, is that the standard was adopted without proper regard to the operative text, the legislative history, and the broad policies of Title VII. This Article examines the McDonnell-Douglas framework through four leading models of statutory construction and concludes that a satisfactory statutory justification for the test is lacking. While it arguably may have been appropriate to justify this lapse in the past by claiming that the …
Sky Remains Intact: Why Allowing Subgroup Evidence Is Consistent With The Age Discrimination In Employment Act, Sandra F. Sperino
Sky Remains Intact: Why Allowing Subgroup Evidence Is Consistent With The Age Discrimination In Employment Act, Sandra F. Sperino
Faculty Articles and Other Publications
Employers' stereotypes about the effect of age on employment are not consistent across the entire group of individuals age forty and older. It is intuitive to believe that employers may view employees in their forties as being in their employment prime, while believing that employees in their sixties are not.' Likewise, perceptions of age may vary dramatically depending on the age of the decision-maker. Common sense tells us that a supervisor in his or her forties may create policies that are neutral or positive toward individuals in that age range, while either intentionally or unintentionally engaging in employment practices that …
Understanding The Unrest Of France’S Younger Workers: The Price Of American Ambivalence, Joseph Seiner
Understanding The Unrest Of France’S Younger Workers: The Price Of American Ambivalence, Joseph Seiner
Faculty Publications
The youth of France refer to themselves as the “throwaway generation,” in part because they perceive that their value to the labor market is simply disregarded by the government. Against this backdrop, young French workers recently took to the streets in riot to protest a newly enacted employment law that stripped employees under the age of twenty-six of many of their employment protections. The protests persisted after the French Constitutional Council held that the law did not violate France's constitution. The continued violent opposition ultimately forced French President Jacques Chirac to abandon the law, resulting in an embarrassing defeat for …
No Longer Just Company Men: The Flexible Workforce And Employment Discrimination, Review Essay On 'From Widgets To Digits Employment Regulation For The Changing Workplace', By Katherine V.W. Stone (2004), Miriam A. Cherry
All Faculty Scholarship
In her new book, From Widgets to Digits, Professor Katherine V.W. Stone reviews and analyzes the dramatic changes, both technological and demographic, that have transformed work in America during the last thirty years. The book broadly documents the shift from an economy that primarily relies on the production and consumption of goods to one in which learning and the transmittal of knowledge is central to the creation of wealth. Professor Stone describes how in the past, workers may have expected job security and long-term employment, but that recent economic, social, and technological change have led to a more temporary and …
It's About The Relationship: Collaborative Law In The Employment Context, Marcia L. Mccormick
It's About The Relationship: Collaborative Law In The Employment Context, Marcia L. Mccormick
All Faculty Scholarship
Work is central to American life and drives us in fundamental ways. And the workplace, as a result, dominates our lives. We are spending ever greater amounts of time in the workplace and less time in civic and social engagements. As a consequence, our relationships at work have become so significant that they are nearly as important to us as our family relationships. In fact, the employment relationship is similar to the family relationship in the emotional support from coworkers it can provide and in the financial support it provides. Because the employment relationship is so common and psychologically so …
Co-Blogging Law, Eric Goldman
Co-Blogging Law, Eric Goldman
Faculty Publications
Abstract: Bloggers often work collaboratively with other bloggers, a phenomenon I call "co-blogging. " The decision to co-blog may seem casual, but it can have significant and unexpected legal consequences forthe co-bloggers. This essay looks at some of these consequences under partnership law, employment law, and copyright law and explains how each of these legal doctrines can lead to counterintuitive results. The essay then discusses some recommendations to mitigate the harshness of these results.
Privacy For The Working Class: Public Work And Private Lives, Michael Selmi
Privacy For The Working Class: Public Work And Private Lives, Michael Selmi
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
Privacy has become the law's chameleon, simultaneously everywhere and nowhere. This is particularly true of the workplace where employees often seek some private space but where the law, particularly the formidable employment-at-will rule, typically frustrates that search. As the workplace has expanded both in its scope and importance, additional concerns have been raised about an employer's potential reach outside of the workplace. In this symposium contribution, I explore the privacy issue by asking a fundamental question: what do employees deserve? My answer is that, as a matter of policy, we ought to concede privacy issues as the employer's domain at …
Under Construction: Questioning Whether Statutory Construction Principles Justify Individual Liability Under The Family And Medical Leave Act, Sandra F. Sperino
Under Construction: Questioning Whether Statutory Construction Principles Justify Individual Liability Under The Family And Medical Leave Act, Sandra F. Sperino
Faculty Articles and Other Publications
The question of whether individuals can be personally liable under the Family and Medical Leave Act ("FMLA") has been percolating in the federal courts for more than a decade. Over this period, district courts throughout the country have consistently held that individuals working for private employers can be held liable for FMLA violations. Given the length of time over which the courts have been considering this issue, it would seem safe to assume that the courts have fully examined the factors that might lead to individual liability, such as the FMLA's statutory language, other courts' interpretations of similar language, the …