Law Commons^™

Age’S Influence On Workplace Safety, Kelly Muhammad, Cheryl Marcham

Publications

According to the National Safety Council (NSC, n.d.), the total cost of work injuries in 2019 was an estimated $171 billion. This estimate includes wage and productivity losses, medical expenses, administrative expenses and employers’ uninsured costs. In that same year, an estimated 105 million workdays were lost due to injuries (NSC, n.d.). This report does not provide any specific details or any characteristics about the injured. However, knowledge of certain characteristics of the injured such as age can be critical information. This type of information could be useful in the development of workplace hazard prevention and mitigation programs.

Compensation, Commodification, And Disablement: How Law Has Dehumanized Laboring Bodies And Excluded Nonlaboring Humans, Karen M. Tani

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Injury Impoverished: Workplace Accidents, Capitalism, and Law in the Progressive Era. by Nate Holdren.

Essentially Unprotected, Sherley Cruz

Scholarly Works

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the American public has relied on “essential” low-wage workers to provide critical services and keep the public safe. Who has been protecting the workers? COVID-19 has exposed cracks that lead to serious gaps in workplace protections for low-wage workers. Decades of exploitative employer practices and neglect from the federal government have left frontline low-wage workers essentially unprotected. Many of these workers are people of color and recent immigrants who have been disproportionately impacted by the virus due to structural racism and socio-economic barriers. This is particularly true in the meatpacking industry, where a …

Becoming Visible, Jennifer B. Shinall

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article will consider the consequences of a large number of workers making their health conditions known to their employers during the pandemic. Becoming visible will likely have short-term costs for both employers and employees-—in terms of health-status discrimination, privacy, and administrative burdens. Nonetheless, this Article will ultimately argue that becoming visible also has a major benefit: improved information flow between employers and employees. Although the long-run cost-benefit analysis of increased health-status visibility during the pandemic remains to be seen, increased visibility ultimately has the potential to improve the employer-employee relationship.

Surveying The Safety Culture Of Academic Laboratories, Emily Faulconer, Zachary Dixon, John C. Griffith, Hayden Frank

Publications

The university traditionally has been the foundation for young adults’ professional development, yet the proclivity toward safety culture has garnered less focus in higher education than in the workforce. A survey of faculty at a medium-sized, research-active, private institution revealed specific areas of policy noncompliance as well as specific safety attitudes that can be targeted for interventions. Albeit a snapshot view, the survey implies that safety needs better representation in the classroom, teaching laboratories, and research facilities at universities. Safety is not abandoned by any means, and there is a strong presence of safety-oriented individuals, but the data show barriers …

1911 Triangle Factory Fire — Building Safety Codes, Paul H. Robinson, Sarah M. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

Can a crime make our world better? Crimes are the worst of humanity’s wrongs but, oddly, they sometimes do more than anything else to improve our lives. As it turns out, it is often the outrageousness itself that does the work. Ordinary crimes are accepted as the background noise of our everyday existence but some crimes make people stop and take notice – because they are so outrageous, or so curious, or so heart-wrenching. These “trigger crimes” are the cases that this book is about.

They offer some incredible stories about how people, good and bad, change the world around …

Crimes That Changed Our World: Tragedy, Outrage, And Reform: Chapter One: 1911 Triangle Factory Fire: Building Safety Codes, Paul H. Robinson, Sarah M. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

This first chapter of the recently published book Crimes That Changed Our World: Tragedy, Outrage, and Reform, examines the process by which the tragic 1911 Triangle Factory Fire provoked enormous outrage that in turn created a local then national movement for workplace and building safety that ultimately became the foundation for today’s building safety codes. What is particularly interesting, however, is that the Triangle Fire was not the worst such tragedy in its day. Why should it be the one that ultimately triggers social progress?

The book has 21 chapters, each of which traces the tragedy-outrage-reform dynamic in a …

Conclusion: Trigger Crimes & Social Progress, Paul H. Robinson, Sarah M. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

Can a crime make our world better? Crimes are the worst of humanity’s wrongs but, oddly, they sometimes do more than anything else to improve our lives. It is often the outrageousness itself that does the work. Ordinary crimes are accepted as the background noise of everyday existence but some crimes make people stop and take notice – because they are so outrageous or so heart-wrenching.

This brief essay explores the dynamic of tragedy, outrage, and reform, illustrating how certain kinds of crimes can trigger real social progress. Several dozen such “trigger crimes” are identified but four in particular are …

Damaged Bodies, Damaged Lives: Immigrant Worker Injuries As Dignity Takings, Jayesh Rathod, Rachel Nadas

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Government data consistently affirm that foreign-born workers in the U.S. experience high rates of on-the-job illness and injury. This article explores whether—and under what circumstances—these occupational harms suffered by immigrant workers constitute a dignity taking. The article argues that some injuries suffered by foreign-born workers are indirect takings by the state due to the government’s lackluster oversight and limited penalties for violations of occupational safety and health laws. Using a framework of the body as property, the article then explores when work-related injury constitutes an infringement upon a property right. The article contends that the government’s weak enforcement apparatus, coupled …

Using The Nfl As A Model? Considering Zero Tolerance In The Workplace For Batterers, Deseriee A. Kennedy

Deseriee A. Kennedy

The impact of domestic violence can increasingly be felt in the workplace, and it can adversely affect the safety and productivity of employees. Legislators and employers have begun to recognize the effect of domestic violence on employment, and many have adopted policies to protect the interests of domestic violence survivors. This article suggests that wider adoption of domestic violence policies are needed and these policies should be broadened to directly address batterers in the workplace. The article argues that employer based sanctions would increase batterer accountability and workplace safety. It uses the newly revised NFL Personal Conduct Policy as a …

Using The Nfl As A Model? Considering Zero Tolerance In The Workplace For Batterers, Deseriee A. Kennedy

Scholarly Works

The impact of domestic violence can increasingly be felt in the workplace, and it can adversely affect the safety and productivity of employees. Legislators and employers have begun to recognize the effect of domestic violence on employment, and many have adopted policies to protect the interests of domestic violence survivors. This article suggests that wider adoption of domestic violence policies are needed and these policies should be broadened to directly address batterers in the workplace. The article argues that employer based sanctions would increase batterer accountability and workplace safety. It uses the newly revised NFL Personal Conduct Policy as a …

Danger And Dignity: Immigrant Day Laborers And Occupational Risk, Jayesh Rathod

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

The plight of immigrant workers in the United States has captured significant scholarly attention in recent years. Despite the prevalence of discourses regarding this population, one set of issues has received relatively little attention: immigrant workers’ exposure to unhealthy and unsafe working conditions, and their corresponding susceptibility to workplace injuries and illnesses. Researchers have consistently found that immigrant workers suffer disproportionately from occupational injuries and fatalities, even when controlling for industry and occupation. Why, then, are foreign-born workers at greater risk for workplace injuries and fatalities, when compared with their native-born counterparts? This Article seeks to develop answers to that …

The Workers' Compensation System Of British Columbia: Still In Transition, H. Allan Hunt, Peter S. Barth, Michael J. Leahy

H. Allan Hunt

No abstract provided.

New Hope For Workers' Compensation Programs, H. Allan Hunt, Rochelle Virginia Habeck

H. Allan Hunt

No abstract provided.

Why Not The Best? Service Delivery Core Review Report, H. Allan Hunt

H. Allan Hunt

No abstract provided.

Service Delivery Core Review: A Reappraisal, H. Allan Hunt

Reports

No abstract provided.

Workers At Risk: Regulatory Dysfunction At Osha, Thomas Mcgarity, Rena I. Steinzor, Sidney A. Shapiro, Matthew Shudtz

Rena I. Steinzor

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration was born with a heavy load to bear – the obligation of ensuring that every worker in America has a safe and healthful workplace for his or her entire working life. In its early years, OSHA acted with great vigor, establishing important standards for occupational health and safety that have prevented hundreds of thousands of injuries and illnesses. But the agency has not aged gracefully. Today its enforcement staff is stretched thin and the rulemaking staff struggle to produce health and safety standards that can withstand industry legal challenges. In short, OSHA is a …

Workers At Risk: Regulatory Dysfunction At Osha, Thomas Mcgarity, Rena I. Steinzor, Sidney A. Shapiro, Matthew Shudtz

Faculty Scholarship

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration was born with a heavy load to bear – the obligation of ensuring that every worker in America has a safe and healthful workplace for his or her entire working life. In its early years, OSHA acted with great vigor, establishing important standards for occupational health and safety that have prevented hundreds of thousands of injuries and illnesses. But the agency has not aged gracefully. Today its enforcement staff is stretched thin and the rulemaking staff struggle to produce health and safety standards that can withstand industry legal challenges. In short, OSHA is a …

Is Labor Really Cheap In China - Compliance With Labor And Employment Laws, Marisa Anne Pagnattaro

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article details China’s the growing body of labor and employment laws. Specifically, this research analyzes major labor and employment law developments in China, including the newly adopted Labor Contract Law, employment discrimination sexual harassment, wages, workplace health and safety, worker privacy, and dispute resolution. The ramifications of this developing legal landscape on U.S. companies doing business in China are also discussed.

What We Learn In Troubled Times: Deregulation And Safe Work In The New Economy, Susan Bisom-Rapp

Faculty Scholarship

Reviews of how federal agencies functioned during George W. Bush’s presidency reveal many instances of regulatory capture by industry. One prototypical example is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the agency responsible for occupational safety and health (OSH) standard setting and enforcement. In contrast, a broad array of stakeholders during the Bush years gave good marks to an entirely separate agency, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which conducts research and develops recommendations to prevent workplace injury and illness. By reviewing the disparate performance of OSHA and NIOSH during the Bush administration, this article sheds light …

Safety Practices, Firm Culture, And Workplace Injuries, Richard J. Butler, Yong-Seung Park

Upjohn Press

The authors present analysis of the impact of various HRM practices on firms’ workers’ compensation costs; specifically, which practices lower firms’ workers’ compensation costs and whether the impact is the result of changes in technical efficiency or comes through induced changes in workers’ behavior.

Rethinking America's Approach To Workplace Safety: A Model For Advancing Safety Issues In The Chemical Industry, Gwen Forte

Cleveland State Law Review

In Part II of this note, I analyze the impact of tort litigation, workers' compensation, collective bargaining, and the Occupational Safety and Health Act on workplace safety. I begin by describing how each of these vehicles operated historically and then I provide a contemporary perspective. In this section, I also consider the advantages and disadvantages of using these approaches to prevent and compensate for injuries. In Part III, I propose an alternative approach to workplace safety: employee board representation. In this section, I analyze and critique various methods of employee board representation and ultimately recommend a form of representation in …

Avoiding Regulatory Mismatch In The Workplace: An Informational Approach To Workplace Safety Regulation, Thom Lambert

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to do just that. As it turns out, there is fertile middle ground between the pure libertarian “do nothing” approach and the paternalistic command-and-control approach OSHA tends to favor. Even the middle ground “information-provision” approach a number of theorists have advocated (in imprecise terms) could be implemented several different ways, some of which would be more effective than others. It is therefore possible to make some systematic policy prescriptions that may aid regulators attempting to avoid regulatory mismatch.In the course of exploring the range of regulatory options, this article attempts to make several contributions …

Why Not The Best? Service Delivery Core Review Report, H. Allan Hunt

Upjohn Institute Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Workers' Compensation Under Alternative Insurance Arrangements, Terry Thomason, Timothy P. Schmidle, John F. Burton

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Workers' Compensation: Benefits, Costs, And Safety Under Alternative Insurance Arrangements, Terry Thomason, Timothy P. Schmidle, John F. Burton

Upjohn Press

Thomason, Schmidle, and Burton make use of a unique data set to delve into how insurance arrangements affect several objectives of the workers' compensation (WC) program. They underscore the effects of deregulation and other changes in WC insurance pricing arrangements by performing empirical analyses that use state-specific cost, benefit, and injury data from 48 states for 1975-1995. This allows them to address the interactive relationships among the four objectives of WC systems adequacy of benefits, affordability of WC insurance, efficiency in the benefits delivery system, and prevention of workplace injuries and diseases and how various public policies adopted by states …

Workplace Safety Policy: Past, Present, And Future, Thomas J. Kniesner, John D. Leeth

Center for Policy Research

With an annual budget of about $400 million, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is about 5 percent the size of the Environmental Protection Agency, another federal agency created by President Richard M. Nixon in 1970, the "Year of the Environment." Nearly all workers in the United States come under OSHA's jurisdiction, with some notable exceptions, including miners, transportation workers, many public employees, and people who are self-employed. OSHA is currently responsible for projecting over 100 million workers at 6 million work sites with the help of only about 2,000 workplace health and safety inspectors. Nevertheless, suppers of OSHA …

The Workers' Compensation System Of British Columbia: Still In Transition, H. Allan Hunt, Peter S. Barth, Michael J. Leahy, Workers' Compensation Board Of British Columbia

Upjohn Institute Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

New Hope For Workers' Compensation Programs, H. Allan Hunt, Rochelle Virginia Habeck

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Preemption

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.