Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

The Future Of Fast Food Governance, Andrew Elmore

Faculty Scholarship

The Fast Food Forward movement has swelled into one of the largest protests by low‐wage workers in U.S. history, animating efforts at all levels of government to raise and enforce workplace standards. One such strategy is to hold fast food franchisors accountable as joint employers of their franchisees’ employees. In what may be a watershed moment, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (NYAG) recently filed suit against Domino’s Pizza, the franchisor, for wage‐and‐hour‐law violations in its franchisees’ stores across New York State.

Fast food store employees report widespread wage‐and‐hour law violations, and the NYAG’s Domino’s lawsuit appears to confirm this …

Recognizing Women's Rights At Work: Health And Women Workers In Global Supply Chains, Erika R. George, Candace D. Gibson, Rebecca Sewall, David Wofford

Faculty Scholarship

The Guiding Principles mandate that businesses respect the human fights enshrined in the International Bill of Human Rights and in the International Labour Organization (ILO)'s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Due diligence processes and risk impact assessments are the main recommended means for ensuring compliance with companies' commitments to respect international human fights. Because OSH as a conceptual framework and regulatory order is not sufficient to identify the risk of health fights violations to women workers, we argue companies should not anchor their due diligence and risk assessment in OSH conventions and settle for a check-the-box solution …

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 …

Trending @ Rwu Law: Professor Cecily Banks's Post: Time To Teach Business: September 16, 2016, Cecily Banks

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

That's Not My Name: An Analysis Of North Carolina Laws Used To Classify Employees And Independent Contractors Of Sharing-Economy Business, Gabriel J. Wright

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.

How To Screen For Success In Employment Law Cases, Robert M. Rosen

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recent Supreme Court Employment Law Developments, Olati Johnson, Douglas D. Scherer

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Three Out Of Four Economists Recommend Raising The Minimum Wage! A Closer Look At The Debate Surrounding Seattle's Minimum Wage Ordinance, Erica Bergmann

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will discuss the implications of a high minimum wage by examining the debate around the Seattle Ordinance with a particular focus on the IFA lawsuit. To analyze the possible impacts of the Seattle Ordinance, current and historical arguments both in support of and in opposition to minimum wage laws are considered. This Note ultimately concludes that the U.S. District Court rightly denied the IFA’s motion for a preliminary injunction, which would have frustrated Seattle’s experiment before it began. Seattle’s plan to implement a $15 minimum wage, and similar experiments, should be permitted to proceed because the problem of …

Whistling In Silence: The Implications Of Arbitration On Qui Tam Claims Under The False Claims Act, Mathew Andrews

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

For nearly twenty years, corporate defendants have sought unsuccessfully to use arbitration to roll back protections for whistleblowers suing under federal law. The state and federal judiciaries have long stymied these efforts, on the grounds that defendants cannot force the Government's claims into the secretive forum of arbitration. In January 2013, this protection came to an end. A federal court ruled for the first time that a whistleblower suing on behalf of the United States must pursue its action in arbitration. Five months later, this trend continued as federal courts have compelled arbitration of state law qui tam actions. This …

Fortifying The Rights Of Unauthorized Immigrant Workers: Why Employee-Focused Incentives Under The Nlra Would Help End The Cycle Of Labor Rights Abuse, Caitlin E. Delaney

Journal of Law and Policy

Over the past several decades, there has been an unmistakable tension between labor law and immigration law in the United States. That tension, addressed by the Supreme Court most recently in 2001, still exists for unauthorized immigrant workers who wish to assert their labor rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). While the Obama Administration has made significant strides in easing the concerns that unauthorized immigrant workers may have before filing an NLRA claim, the unavailability of the back pay remedy and the uncertainty of protection from immigration authorities leave little incentive for such workers to assert their labor …

Personal Injury Victims As Insurance Collection Agents: Erisa Preemption Of State Antisubrogation Laws, Jonathan P. Connery

Journal of Law and Policy

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) was enacted in 1974 to protect the pension rights of employees nationwide. However, due to its broad preemptive powers, ERISA has since developed into a tool used by health insurers to recover millions of dollars in tort damages meant to benefit employees with ERISA health plans. This practice, known as subrogation, has been met with legislative backlash in the form of state antisubrogation statutes, which attempt to limit the enforceability of subrogation clauses found in almost all ERISA health plans. However, many courts have held that ERISA preempts these antisubrogation statutes, thereby affirming …

Share And Share Dislike: The Rise Of Uber And Airbnb And How New York City Should Play Nice, Alexandra Jonas

Journal of Law and Policy

Uber and Airbnb are two companies in the emerging “sharing economy” that provide individuals with a means to become entrepreneurs and benefit from a laissez-faire business model. The problem, however, is that while the benefits to users are great, so too are the risks. The dangers of operating without restraint and circumventing existing law are not only potentially harmful to unapprised users, but also adversely affect the continued use of these businesses. Every aggrieved user complaint has the potential for a lawsuit and every violation creates an opportunity for penalties. Left over are attempts by the courts and city government …

Dialogic Labor Regulation In The Global Supply Chain, Kevin Kolben

Michigan Journal of International Law

In May 2006, the government of Jordan was facing a crisis. A small U.S. labor-rights activist group had just released a damning report documenting extensive labor abuses in Jordan’s fledgling garment industry. Adding fuel to the fire, the New York Times published a front-page story about the report with its own field work that corroborated some of the allegations, such as long and abusive working hours, the confiscation of passports of foreign workers, horrendous living conditions, and sexual harassment. Although garment manufacturing was new to Jordan, after just several years of existence it already constituted an important part of Jordan’s …

Public Employee Strikes In Ohio: The Ferguson Act Reconsidered, Donald J. Hoffman, Donald J. Newman

Akron Law Review

A SOCIETY CHANGES through normal evolutionary processes, the laws by which that society elects to be governed must also be changed.2 The diminution of the rationale for a given law tends to render that law vacuous. Impossibility of effective enforcement of the law will often render a law impotent. Failure by the appropriate legislative body to revise or repeal such laws to more accurately accommodate the current consensus results in a general deterioration of society's respect for law. An example is the Ferguson Act, which unequivocably prohibits any public employee in Ohio from striking. It has become clear that the …

Beyond Crosby V. Beam: Ohio Courts Extend Protection Of Minority Stockholders Of Close Corporations, Kathleen L. Kuhlman

Akron Law Review

This Comment explores the possible ramifications of viewing working minority shareholders as term employees on both close corporation law and at-will-employment law in Ohio. Part I discusses the background and emergence of the heightened fiduciary duty owed by the majority stockholders to the minority stockholders in closely held corporations and the resultant protection of the minority. Part II discusses the current standing of the employment at-will doctrine and what protections exist for at-will employees in Ohio. Part III examines recent Ohio case law that compares close corporation employment with at-will-employment and analyzes the courts' reasoning behind creating a new exception …

No Pay, No Gain? The Plus Side Of Unpaid Internships, Chad A. Pasternack

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

Recent cases out of the Southern District of New York have shined a spotlight on the phenomenon that is the unpaid internship with for-profit companies. These rulings, awaiting scrutiny by the Second Circuit, have opened the floodgates for countless interns to challenge their “employers” for the minimum wage they may be owed under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This article examines the evolution of testing for employment under the FLSA, which varies greatly among the circuits. It then argues for a limited exception to the FLSA inspired by the “small business exception” to the Affordable Care Act.

International Law - Employment Discrimination. Japanese Corporation Formed Under United States Law Must Comply With Terms Of Title Vii Of The Civil Rights Act Of 1964. Avagliano V. Sumitumo Shoji America, Inc., - U.S. -, 102 S. Ct. 2374 (1982)., Henry Cyrus

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Voluntary Plant Closings And Workforce Reductions In The European Communities, J. Pipkorn

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Income Inequality And Corporate Structure, Matthew T. Bodie

All Faculty Scholarship

Efforts to address income inequality generally focus on wealth redistribution through taxation and government benefits. But these efforts do not attack the core problem -- the unfair distribution of wealth at the firm level. This essay, a contribution to the "Inequality, Opportunity, and the Law of the Workplace" symposium, argues that workers need power within their firms to stake their claims to larger slices of the corporate pie. Even though the current law of the workplace does provide regulatory support for workers, it fails to change internal firm governance. Policymakers who want to take on income inequality as a structural …

"Least Restrictive Means”: Burwell V. Hobby Lobby, Noah Marks

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Discrimination Cases Of The 2002 Term, Eileen Kaufman

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Age Discrimination--Extraterritorial Application Of The Age Discrimination In Employment Act--Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Determines That A United States Corporation Operating In West Germany Is Subject To Suit Under The Age Discrimination In Employment Act--Employer's Defense Based On Compliance With West German Law Rejected, Chris Lauderdale

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Career Advice For New In-House Lawyers, Faraz Choudhry

Hamline Law Review

abstract

Protecting Whistleblower Protections In The Dodd-Frank Act, Samuel C. Leifer

Michigan Law Review

In 2008, the United States fell into its worst economic recession in over seventy years. In response, Congress enacted the near-comprehensive Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Section 922 of Dodd–Frank, in particular, includes specific provisions designed to incentivize and protect corporate whistleblowers. These provisions demonstrated Congress’s belief that a comprehensive and robust whistleblower protection scheme was essential to preventing many of the abuses that caused the financial crisis. Unfortunately, this section’s inconsistent language has produced conflicting decisions within the federal judiciary. In accordance with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”)’s own reading of Section 922, several district …

Incorporating Rights: Child Labor In African Agriculture And The Challenge Of Changing Practices In The Cocoa Industry, Erika George

Faculty Scholarship

Millions of children around the world are working.¹ Many youth are fortunate to enjoy age-appropriate employment and learn valuable skills through work. Unfortunately, too many children labor under abusive conditions-some are trafficked, others are enslaved . These unfortunate children are denied the opportunity to enjoy the fundamental human rights essential to their development and guaranteed under international law.

This essay offers an overview of the issues associated with child labor eradication, a review of the legal instruments regulating the work of children, and an assessment of recent initiatives to address the worst forms of child labor in the cocoa …

Subminimum Or Subpar? A Note In Favor Of Repealing The Fair Labor Standards Act's Subminimum Wage Program, Melia Preedy

Seattle University Law Review

This Note argues for the repeal of Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which continues to perpetuate a system allowing employers to pay less than minimum, or “subminimum,” wage to certain employees with disabilities. The Section 14(c) program is a relic of policy leftover from the 1930s and does not help the disabled community, but rather rests on the presumption that persons with disabilities never progress. In light of recent House Resolution 3086, Congress went against the current trend of encouraging maximum independence and equal opportunities for persons with disabilities and instead upheld the subminimum wage program; …

Systematic Ict Surveillance By Employers: Are Your Personal Activities Private?, Arlene J. Nicholas

Faculty and Staff - Articles & Papers

This paper reviews the various methods of information and communications technology (ICT) that is used by employers to peer into the work lives and, in some cases, private lives of employees. Some of the most common methods – such as computer and Internet monitoring, video surveillance, and global positioning systems (GPS) – have resulted in employee disciplines that have been challenged in courts. This paper provides background information on United States (U.S.) laws and court cases which, in this age of easily accessible information, mostly support the employer. Assessments regarding regulations and policies, which will need to be continually updated …

Slides: “Human Sustainability” In Natural Resources Industries: The New Frontier In Compliance, Social Responsibility, Disclosure, And Transparency, T. Markus Funk

Natural Resource Industries and the Sustainability Challenge (Martz Winter Symposium, February 27-28)

Presenter: T. Markus Funk, Partner, Perkins Coie

21 slides

Policing The Social Media Water Cooler: Recent Nlrb Decisions Should Make Employers Think Twice Before Terminating An Employee For Comments Posted On Social Media Sites, Eric Raphan, Sean Kirby

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

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 …