Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

Improving Access To Justice: Plain Language Family Law Court Forms In Washington State, Charles R. Dyer, Joan E. Fairbanks, M. Lynn Greiner, Kirsten Barron, Janet L. Skreen, Josefina Cerrillo-Ramirez, Andrew Lee, Bill Hinsee

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Congress' Encroachment On The President's Power In Indian Law And Its Effect On Executive-Order Reservations, Mark R. Carter Jd, Phd

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Closing The Door On The Public Policy Exception To At- Will Employment: How The Washington State Supreme Court Erroneously Foreclosed Wrongful Discharge Claims For Whistleblowers In Cudney V. Alsco, Inc., Laura A. Turczanski

Seattle University Law Review

In 2008, Matthew Cudney was terminated from his employment with ALSCO, Inc. a few weeks after reporting to his supervisor and human resources manager that he observed the branch general manager appearing intoxicated at work and driving away in a company vehicle. Cudney brought an action for wrongful discharge in violation of public policy, claiming that he was terminated in retaliation for reporting the manager’s drinking and driving. In a 5–4 decision, the Washington Supreme Court held that Cudney’s tort claim of wrongful discharge in violation of public policy could not proceed. This Note contends that the Cudney court erred …

The Gay Accent, Gender, And Title Vii Employment Discrimination, Ryan Castle

Seattle University Law Review

While race, religion, ethnicity, and sex will always remain salient social issues in our nation, sexual orientation is currently at the forefront of our national debate and will likely not abate in the foreseeable future. Federal courts, for example, struggle in differentiating sex, gender, and sexuality when adjudicating Title VII employment discrimination claims. Because Title VII does not protect employees from sexual orientation-based discrimination, plaintiffs who are or are perceived to be of a sexual minority have difficulty proving a valid sex-based discrimination claim in federal court. This difficulty arises because one cannot perceive sex, gender, and sexuality without muddling …

"So Closely Intertwined": Labor Interests And Racial Solidarity, Charlotte Garden, Nancy Leong

Faculty Articles

Conventional wisdom states that labor unions and people of color are adversaries. Commentators, academics, politicians, and employers across a broad range of ideologies view the two groups’ interests as fundamentally opposed and their relationship as rightfully fraught with tension. Like much conventional wisdom, the narrative that unions and people of color are rivals is flawed. In reality, labor unions and civil rights groups work together to advance a wide array of mutual interests; this work ranges from lobbying all levels of government to protesting working conditions across the country. Moreover, unions improve the lives of both members and non-members of …

Cheaper Than A Slave: Indentured Labor, Colonialism And Capitalism, Tayyab Mahmud

Faculty Articles

The construct of free wage-labor, envisaged as consensual sale of labor-power by an autonomous and unencumbered individual in a market of juridical equals governed strictly by economic laws of supply and demand, is the bedrock of the purportedly universal category of labor under capitalism. However, this conceptual ensemble is an instance, yet again, of a particular masquerading as the universal – Europe’s autobiography passing for world history. It also underscores the divergence between mythologies and historical operations of capitalism. This article takes up the deployment of indentured labor from colonial India in plantation colonies across the globe for over a …

Citizens, United And Citizens United: The Future Of Labor Speech Rights?, Charlotte Garden

Faculty Articles

Within hours of its announcement, the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC came under attack from progressive groups. Among these groups were some of America's largest labor unions-even though the decision applies equally to unions and for-profit corporations. The reason is clear: there exist both practical and structural impediments that will prevent unions from benefitting from Citizens United to the same extent as corporations. Therefore, Citizens United stands to unleash a torrent of corporate electioneering that could drown out the countervailing voice of organized labor.

This article, however, takes a broader view of Citizens United to explore a …

Teaching For America: Unions And Academic Freedom, Charlotte Garden

Faculty Articles

Much of the current controversy regarding the rights and responsibilities of public-sector employees and their unions has focused on elementary and secondary school teachers. On one side of that controversy, critics of teachers and teachers' unions argue that teachers are overpaid civil servants and that unions’ focus on wages and working conditions comes at the expense of students’ learning. On the other side, teachers’ unions and their supporters focus on the unique role educators play in forming the next generation of citizens and the need to adequately support teachers in fulfilling that role.

Implicit in this discourse are two distinct …

Diversity And The Virtual Workplace: Performance Identity And Shifting Boundaries Of Workplace Engagement, Natasha T. Martin

Faculty Articles

This article explores the meaning of workplace discrimination where reality meets the imaginary world in virtual work settings. Using a more recent development in the realm of virtual work--workplace avatars--the article considers the impact on law of virtual performance identity by workers where appearances can be altered in virtual reality.

Current protected-class approaches to antidiscrimination law have not served as the antidote to workplace bias and exclusion. Thus, the article investigates whether avatar technology holds promise for facilitating greater inclusion of marginalized workers in the contemporary workplace. Does this mode of virtual work serve as a platform for diversity or …

Labor Values Are First Amendment Values: Why Union Comprehensive Campaigns Are Protected Speech, Charlotte Garden

Faculty Articles

Corporate targets of union “comprehensive campaigns” increasingly have responded by filing civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) lawsuits alleging that unions’ speech and petitioning activities are extortionate. These lawsuits are the descendants of the Supreme Court’s unexplained treatment of much labor speech as less worthy of protection than other types of speech. Starting from the position that speech that promotes democratic discourse deserves top-tier First Amendment protection, this article argues that labor speech--which plays a unique role in civil society--should be on an equal footing with civil rights speech. Thus, even if union advocacy qualifies as legal extortion, …

Fait Accompli?: Where The Supreme Court And Equal Pay Meet A Narrow Legislative Override Under The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Megan Coluccio

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment argues the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act’s consequences will be minimally felt, so long as the Act is narrowly construed. The Comment suggests congressional action was appropriate after the Supreme Court’s Ledbetter decision and discusses the political and legislative debate leading to the Act. In addition, the Comment analyzes the Act in application, exploring its meaning, implications, and function. The Comment argues that the concerns and consequences arising from the enactment of the Act can be alleviated and avoided by a narrow interpretation of its amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Finally, the Comment recommends …

Pretext In Peril, Natasha T. Martin

Faculty Articles

This Article addresses the connections among substance, procedure, and equality in the American workplace. Exploring the deepening struggle for plaintiffs under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, this Article seeks to add clarity to an enduring quandary—why does Title VII fail to combat the prejudicial disparate treatment it was designed to eradicate? This Article offers a critique of the hardships shouldered by plaintiffs in proving contemporary workplace discrimination.

Challenging the seemingly unfettered discretion of the courts in evaluating claims of workplace bias, this Article pursues the interplay of procedural and substantive law to expose how courts "chip …

Fostering Economic Growth In The High-Technology Field: Washington Should Abandon Its Recognition Of The Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine, Sarah J. Taylor

Seattle University Law Review

Part II of this Comment discusses the history and need for trade secret law, while providing an overview of Washington's current application of trade secret law. This Part also notes the risks associated with enforcing a valid trade secret misappropriation claim. Part III addresses the history and importance of noncompetition agreements, as well as their inherent conflict with the notion of employee mobility. Washington's recognition of reasonable noncompetition agreements is also discussed. Part IV discusses the modem application of the doctrine of inevitable disclosure, as well as the benefits and costs of recognizing the doctrine in Washington. Finally, Part V …

Employer Vicarious Liability For Voluntary Relationships Between Supervisors And Employees, Carrie E. Fischesser

Seattle University Law Review

It is somewhat radical to suggest that an employer should not be held vicariously liable for an employee's voluntary submission to sexual advances where the alleged harasser is a supervisor, and this approach is a marked departure from existing assumptions regarding sexual harassment. Most decisions and writings on the topic have imposed--under a traditional agency theory-- vicarious liability upon the employer for the sexually harassing conduct of its supervisors.4 Specifically, courts addressing this issue have held that “[t]here is no question that a ‘tangible employment action’ occurs when a supervisor abuses his authority to act on his employer's behalf by …

Taking The Stand: The Lessons Of The Three Men Who Took The Japanese American Internment To Court, Lorraine K. Bannai

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Use Of Hiring Preferences By Alaska Native Corporations After Malabed V. North Slope Borough, James P. Mills

Seattle University Law Review

This article argues that Native corporations can provide employment preferences for Alaska Natives, so long as they are appropriately tailored to provide employment preferences to that corporation's shareholders or those closely related to the shareholders. Moreover, a hiring preference based on shareholder status is not a preference based on race and, as such, does not violate Alaska state law.24 But even if the Alaska Supreme Court found that these hiring preferences did violate the state constitution, given the federal government's unique relationship with Native corporations 25 and Congress's clear intent for Native corporations to favor Alaska Natives in their hiring …

Lack Of Meaningful Choice Defined: Your Job Vs. Your Right To Sue In A Judicial Forum, Sara Lingafelter

Seattle University Law Review

Mandatory arbitration agreements subvert an employee's constitutional right to a judicial forum and generally place unfair burdens on plaintiffs. An employee faced with the option of either signing a mandatory arbitration agreement or losing a job often has no meaningful choice. The Supreme Court, however, has failed to recognize first that Congress did not intend for mandatory arbitration to extend to Title VII claims and second, that employers often leave employees with no meaningful choice regarding mandatory arbitration. Nonetheless, state and federal judges are increasingly recognizing that arbitration agreements may be the product of procedural unconscionability. Accordingly, when employees are …

Damage Control: Staking Claim To Employment Law Remedies For Undocumented Immigrant Workers After Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. V. Nlrb, Elizabeth R. Baldwin

Seattle University Law Review

This Note explains why the Supreme Court's decision in Hoffman threatens to do the exact opposite of what the Court intended. Specifically, while the majority's opinion purports to maintain the integrity of IRCA, it will likely undermine the Act by encouraging employers to hire undocumented workers.' In addition to creating confusion, the Hoffman decision offends traditional notions of statutory construction by departing from both the text of the statute and the legislative intent. Furthermore, the holding has the de facto effect of forging a new way to investigate IRCA violations and grants employers a new defense to liability. Moreover, in …

Smith V. Bates Technical College: Washington Extends The Availability Of The Tort Of Wrongful Discharge In Violation Of Public Policy, But A Little Too Far: Employees Should Still Exhaust Other Remedies, Richard A. Morris

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will present and analyze two significant issues addressed by the Smith court. First, the court properly decided that state common law claims are not preempted by collective bargaining agreements or available administrative procedures. Second, the court incorrectly determined that exhaustion of administrative or contractual remedies is not a prerequisite to seeking tort relief in court. The judiciary should give deference to administrative or contractual procedures specifically designed to resolve the matter in dispute. This Note will analyze the preemption issue by first examining, in Part II, the general function of common law torts, the doctrine of employment-at-will, and …

Cockle: Importing Health Benefits Into Wages—An Invitation For Legislative Review Of The Wage Definition Under Washington's Industrial Insurance Act, Matthew H. Adams

Seattle University Law Review

This Note addresses the efficacy of construing the term "wages" RCW 51.08.178 to include employer-provided health insurance, hoping to serve as a resource for the Legislature to reevaluate IIA's wage definition in light of Cockle. First, this Note gives a general background of IIA and the Act's time-loss compensation scheme. Next, this Note discusses how Washington and other jurisdictions treat fringe benefits in defining "wages." This Note then examines the Washington Supreme Court's ground-breaking decision in Cockle, in which the court held that the value of employer-provided medical and dental benefits are part of the basis used to …

To Allow To Sue, Or Not To Allow To Sue: Zimmerman V. Oregon Department Of Justice Decides Title Ii Of The Americans With Disabilities Act Does Not Apply To Employment Discrimination, Cabrelle Abel

Seattle University Law Review

The article analyzes Title II and explains why, in the interests of judicial economy, the Zimmerman court correctly held that Title II does not apply to employment discrimination. First, the article discusses the particular wording of the ADA, specifically comparing the language of Title I to the language of Title II. Next, the article briefly considers the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, because Title II should be interpreted consistently with that Act. Then, using the analysis announced by the Supreme Court in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. the article examines the Title II regulations promulgated by the Department of …

Employers Beware: The Ninth Circuit's Rejection Of The "Direct Threat To Self" Disability Discrimination Defense In Echazabal V. Chevron, Sheehan Sullivan

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will address whether the Ninth Circuit should have upheld the "direct threat to self" defense in Echazabal v. Chevron. First, the Note will introduce the "direct threat to self" debate in the context of the ADA's language, the EEOC-outlined regulatory provisions, and the case law surrounding the direct threat question. Specifically, the Note will address (1) the relationship between the ADA and the EEOC, (2) the compatiblity of the ADA with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and (3) the case law applying the EEOC regulations, the ADA provisions, and the Rehabilitation Act provisions. Next, the Note will …

Representatives Of Their Own Choosing?: Certification, Elections, And Employer Free Speech, 1935-1959, John Logan

Seattle University Law Review

While previous studies by industrial relations and legal scholars have scrutinized NLRB decisions and court rulings governing the conduct of representation elections, this paper analyzes instead the following issues, which are scarcely mentioned in the existing literature: why the NLRB "voluntarily" abandoned card certifications; how employers influenced and responded to developments in certification policy; and how changes in certification policy and employer electioneering affected the outcome of organizing campaigns. The paper focuses on the two decades following the NLRB's 1939 decision to abandon card certifications, during which time employers played an increasingly active role in opposing unionization.

The Heavy Burden Of The State: Revisiting The History Of Labor Law In The Interwar Period, Christopher L. Tomlins

Seattle University Law Review

This Article reflects on possible conclusions to be drawn from this symposium. The article concludes that individually, these authors have demonstrated the returns to be gained by pushing labor law history into new empirical and conceptual areas. Collectively, however, their achievement is somewhat different, for collectively they recommend that we revisit what is ostensibly familiar to us.

Taking Stock: New Views Of American Labor Law Between The World Wars, Daniel R. Ernst

Seattle University Law Review

This Article provides an introduction to the symposium. This symposium originated in a session at the annual meeting of the American Society for Legal History held in Seattle in October 1998. Entitled "Labor, Law, and the State in the Interwar Period," the panel provided four different views of a decisive period in the development of labor law in the United States. In the 1980s the panel's chair, Katherine Van Wezel Stone, and commentator, Christopher L. Tomlins, published works that helped spark a modern revival in the historical study of U.S. labor law. The authors of the four papers presented at …

Battle On The Benches: The Wagner Act And The Federal Circuit Courts Of Appeals, 1935-1942, Douglas J. Feeney-Gallagher

Seattle University Law Review

This paper examines the efforts of some circuit court judges to preserve the integrity of the judicial branch against the encroaching power of the New Deal administrative agencies, especially as represented by the National Labord Relations Board (NLRB). This paper offers a historical overview of the relationship between two circuits and the NLRB; one circuit welcomed the Board's aggressive enforcement of the Act, while the other expressed hostility towards the labor agency's powers and interpretation of the Wagner Act. An examination of the NLRB opinions in these two circuits illustrates the opposing judicial attitudes toward the new turn in labor …

Is Leaving Work To Obtain Safety "Good Cause" To Leave Employment?—Providing Unemployment Insurance To Victims Of Domestic Violence In Washington State, L'Nayim A. Shuman-Austin

Seattle University Law Review

This paper focuses on the unemployment compensation statutes, administrative law decisions, and the case law of Washington state and proposes that domestic violence creates involuntary unemployment and should, therefore, be considered a compelling good cause situation for provision of unemployment compensation benefits. Title 50 of the Revised Code of Washington, which provides the structure and provisions of unemployment compensation eligibility, should be liberally construed by agency officials and courts or amended so as to provide unemployment compensation benefits to victims of domestic violence who leave work to obtain safety.

Petting The Infamous Yellow Dog: The Seattle High School Teachers Union And The State, 1928-1931, Joseph Slater

Seattle University Law Review

In 1928 a Seattle labor union appealed an adverse lower court ruling to the Washington State Supreme Court. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer claimed that the matter presented "probably the biggest labor question ever faced in this state."' This case did not involve the Industrial Workers of the World, loggers, or other traditional subjects of labor history. It involved high school teachers in the Seattle public schools. This paper will discuss this case, Seattle High School Teachers Chap. No. 200 of the American Federation of Teachers v. Sharples, and the circumstances surrounding it. Specifically, this paper will describe the formation of …

The Search For Constitutional Protection Of Labor Standards, 1924-1941: From Interstate Compacts To International Treaties, Edward C. Lorenz

Seattle University Law Review

Part II of this article will begin by reviewing the growing awareness before 1925 of the crisis in the New England textile industry and the emergence of John Winant as a concerned leader. Part III examines the early effort to confront the decline with new corporate and public policies. Part IV chronicles the pursuit of labor standards through interstate compacts and alternatives. Part V focuses upon joining the ILO and the questions that arose regarding the relationship of conventions to domestic law. Part VI describes the post-World War II attacks on the ILO which undermined, until the 1990s, the United …

Speak No Evil: Negligent Employment Referral And The Employer's Duty To Warn (Or, How Employers Can Have Their Cake And Eat It Too), J. Bradley Buckhalter

Seattle University Law Review

This article begins by surveying the evolution of tort doctrine and the "no duty to act" rule. It then proceeds to examine current theories of employer liability in the referral and hiring context and moves on to trace the history of the negligent employment referral claim. Next, this section scrutinizes the Muroc decision and ends with a brief discussion of the future of negligent employment referral. Section III begins by exploring the implications of nondisclosure of reference information for both tort policy and tort doctrine. It then proposes an affirmative duty of disclosure as a solution by amalgamating the reasoning …