Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

The Cowboy Code Meets The Smash Mouth Truth: Meditations On Worker Incivility, Michael C. Duff

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This symposium essay argues that workers must face up and wake up to the emerging real world of perpetual employment vulnerability. Clinging to the faith that those who govern us will abide by simple moral codes simply will not do in this world. Workers must resist forces promoting vulnerability and internalize a steely and clear-eyed ethic of self-defense in response to the smash mouth truth of this challenging new environment. Workers and dissidents must not shrink when their frank opposition to the status quo is cabined and marginalized as “incivility.” The law — and I focus in the essay on …

Our Uneasiness With Police Unions: Power And Voice For The Powerful?, Marcia L. Mccormick

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The police shooting of Michael Brown, and the other recent police shootings of black men and boys, gave rise to many important discussions about race, inequality, power, and policing. But one issue not as widely discussed was the the role and propriety of police unions. This Essay describes the history and uniqueness of public sector unions, such as police unions, and why they are both useful and problematic.

This Essay describes ways police unions might be used to help solve the current problems, such as helping to connect officers with the community. The Federal and State governments have provided recommendations …

Income Inequality And Corporate Structure, Matthew T. Bodie

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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 …

The Law And Economics Of Corporate Social Responsibility And Greenwashing, Miriam A. Cherry

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In this symposium article, I explore the concept of greenwashing in more depth. In the first part of the article, I start with first principles, looking at the origins of greenwashing, its definitions, and identifying theeconomic incentives that lead firms into the practice. The second part of this article examines the legal structure that allows greenwashing to occur, and with it, explores the pervasiveness and extent ofgreenwashing. The third part of this article articulates the harms of greenwashing. Intuitively, greenwashing involves deception, falsity, and hypocrisy that reflexively seem problematic. Precisely identifying the actual harm inflicted by some forms of greenwashing, …

Alt-Labor, Secondary Boycotts, And Toward A Labor Organization Bargain, Michael C. Duff

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Recently, workers led by non-union labor advocacy groups, popularly labelled “ALT-Labor,” have been staging strikes and other job actions across the low wage economy. Some observers see this activity as the harbinger of a reinvigorated labor movement or, more generally, as audacious dissent by low wage workers with nothing to lose. Others view the activity cynically as an exercise in futility, a struggle against inexorable market forces that refuse to pay $15 per hour to a fast food or big box retail worker. This article takes a different tack, presuming (implicitly using history as its guide) that employers will respond …

A Eulogy For The Eula, Miriam A. Cherry

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Participants in the Duquesne University Law Review were asked to write about the future of contract law, specifically contract law in 2025. My contribution is a short science fiction story that is set in 2025. Sometimes, conflicting terms in a contract can give you a headache...or a brilliant idea? Expect both theutopian and dystopian from this story, along with contract law theory.

Collective Representation And Employee Voice In The U.S. Public Sector Workplace: Looking North For Solutions?, Martin H. Malin

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Legislation enacted in many states following the 2010 elections in the United States strengthened unilateral public employer control and weakened employee voice. This rebalancing of power occurred in the context of state public employee labour relations acts modeled on the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), but with a narrower scope of bargaining than in the private sector. This narrow scope channels unions’ voice away from the quality of public services and towards protecting members from the effects of decisions unilaterally imposed by management. The Supreme Court of Canada has held that the freedom of association guaranteed by the Charter of …

Why Whistleblowers Lose: An Empirical And Qualitative Analysis Of State Court Cases, Nancy M. Modesitt

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This Article was originally intended to be an analysis of the propriety, or impropriety, of the doctrines most commonly used by courts to decide employees’ whistleblowing retaliation claims against employers. However, upon conducting initial research, it quickly became apparent that there was very little data available on whistleblowing cases. Unlike employment discrimination cases, where several empirical studies have been conducted, there is only one empirical analysis of whistleblower claims, which focused solely on outcomes in the federal administrative process for claims brought under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). That study revealed that whistleblowers fare poorly for a number of reasons, but …

Does Public Employee Collective Bargaining Distort Democracy? A Perspective From The United States, Martin H. Malin

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The beginning of the second decade of the 21st century saw renewed attacks on public employee collective bargaining, which included claims that allowing public employees to organize and bargain collectively distorts democratic processes. These renewed attacks included the traditional claim that public employee collective bargaining inappropriately gives one interest group, workers and their unions, an avenue of access to public decision-makers that is not available to other interest groups. The attack also raised a new claim of distortion of democratic processes: that unions are inappropriately advantaged in the broader political process through agency shop or fair share and dues check-off …

Two Models Of Interest Arbitration, Martin H. Malin

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Most states prohibit public employees from striking and the federal government makes a strike by a federal employee a felony. Many public employee labor relations acts give organized employees a right to arbitrate when their union and employer are unable to reach agreement on the terms of a contract. Much discussion of such interest arbitration schemes has focused on whether the process inhibits bargaining (the chilling effect) or is habit forming (the narcotic effect). These discussions contrast the use of traditional interest arbitration, where the arbitrator may award any outcome that falls between the parties’ final offers, with final offer …

Participation As A Theory Of Employment, Matthew T. Bodie

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The concept of employment is an important legal category, not only for labor and employment law, but also for intellectual property law, torts, criminal law, and tax. The right-to-control test has dominated the debate over the definition of “employee” since its origins in the master-servant doctrine. However, the test no longer represents our modern notion of what it means to be an employee. This change has played itself out in research on the theory of the firm, which has shifted from a model of control to a model of participation in a team production process. This Article uses the theory …

Identifying (With) Disability: Using Film To Teach Employment Discrimination, Elizabeth Pendo

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Building on a prior article about using film to teach health law, this Essay is intended to share my experience using the film Philadelphia as a method of enhancing coverage and discussion of the employment provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and to provide an opportunity for recognition of, and identification with, the experiences of people with disabilities.

The Roberts Court And The Law Of Human Resources, Matthew T. Bodie

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The rise of human resources departments parallels the increase in the myriad statutory and regulatory requirements that govern the workplace. The Supreme Court's decisions in labor and employment law cases are largely monitored and implemented by HR professionals who must carry out these directives on a daily basis. This article looks at the Roberts Court's labor and employment law cases through the lens of human resources. In adopting an approach that is solicitous towards HR departments and concerns, the Roberts Court reflects a willingness to empower these private institutional players. Even if labor and employment law scholars do not agree …

Larry From The Left: An Appreciation, Matthew T. Bodie, Grant M. Hayden

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This essay approaches the scholarship of the late Professor Larry Ribstein from a progressive vantage point. It argues that Ribstein's revolutionary work upended the "nexus of contracts" theory in corporate law and provided a potential alternative to the regulatory state for those who believe in worker empowerment and anti-cronyism. Progressive corporate law scholars should look to Ribstein's scholarship not as a hurdle to overcome, but as a resource to be tapped for insights about constructing a more egalitarian and dynamic economy.

The Gamification Of Work, Miriam A. Cherry

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In the language of cyberspace, introducing elements of fun or game-playing into everyday tasks or through simulations is known as the process of “gamification.” The idea that people could be working while they play a video game – in some instances without even knowing that they are working – is becoming part of our reality. Gamification is an important element of what in previous writing I have termed “virtual work,” that is, work that is taking place wholly online, in crowdsourcing arrangements, or in virtual worlds. The gamification of work is an important trend with important implications for employment law. …

What Brady V. N.F.L. Teaches About The Devolution Of Labor Law, Michael C. Duff

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In this essay I argue that the Eight Circuit got things very wrong when it found, in Brady v. National Football League, that a district court’s injunctions issued against the NFL in connection with player-filed antitrust suits were barred by the Norris LaGuardia Act of 1932 (NLGA). I argue that the Court’s misreading of the NLGA strikes at the “statutory music” of labor law so dramatically as to represent a judicial unmooring from it. I chronicle other recent important, but relatively minor, judicial departures from the music. I also discuss a major but less recent departure – the employer lockout. …

Implausible Injuries: Wal-Mart V. Dukes And The Future Of Class Actions And Employment Discrimination Cases, Marcia L. Mccormick

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In 2001, a class action suit was brought against Wal-Mart, where plaintiffs sought to certify a class of every woman who did work for the giant retailer or had worked for it since 1998, seeking relief related to promotion and pay policies. Plaintiffs alleged that they were all discriminated against on the basis of sex. The Supreme Court agreed with Wal-Mart, finding that the class did not meet requirements for class actions set by Rule 23. This article explores the reasoning behind the Supreme Court’s split decision that the class did not meet the commonality standard, which relied significantly on …

The Arbitration Fairness Act: It Need Not And Should Not Be An All Or Nothing Proposition, Martin H. Malin

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The proposed Arbitration Fairness Act (AFA) would prohibit all pre-dispute agreements to arbitrate in employment, consumer and franchise contracts. Although changes in the ideological composition of Congress mean that the AFA has little chance of enactment in the foreseeable future, mini-AFAs have been enacted banning pre-dispute arbitration agreements as applied to sexual harassment claims by employees of defense contractors and whistleblower claims by employees in the securities and commodities industries. This article charts a middle ground between those who would ban pre-dispute arbitration mandates in employment contracts completely and those who would leave them unregulated. After surveying the empirical evidence …

Danbury Hatters In Sweden: An American Perspective Of Employer Remedies For Illegal Collective Actions, César F. Rosado Marzán, Margot Nikitas

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The European Court of Justice's ("ECJ") Laval quartet held that worker collective actions that impacted freedom of services and establishment in the E.U. violated E.U. law. After Laval, the Swedish Labor Court imposed exemplary or punitive damages on labor unions for violating E.U. law. These cases have generated critical discussions regarding not only the proper balance between markets and workers’ freedom of association, but also what should be the proper remedies for employers who suffer illegal actions by labor unions under E.U. law. While any reforms to rebalance fundamental freedoms as a result of the Laval quartet will have to …

Punishment And Work Law Compliance: Lessons From Chile, César F. Rosado Marzán

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Workplace law activists and reformers find it increasingly more difficult to obtain redress for violation of workers’ rights. Some of them are calling for stricter enforcement and tougher penalties to bring employers into compliance. However, after seven and half months of participant observation at the Labor Directorate and the labor courts of Chile, institutions that use punishment as their main tools of enforcement, I am skeptical about the likelihood of success of mere punishment for effective workplace law enforcement and compliance. I am skeptical even though Chile is a country recognized as the Latin American “jaguar” for its successful economy …

The Legislative Upheaval In Public-Sector Labor Law: A Search For Common Elements, Martin H. Malin

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Sifting Through The Wreckage Of The Tsunami That Hit Public Sector Collective Bargaining, Martin H. Malin

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Beginning in December 2010, a virtual tsunami of legislative change hit public sector labor law. The change was fueled by a view that public employee unions were exercising outsized power and a privileged position of exclusive access to public decision-makers to extract excessive wages and benefits, protect employees who were poor performers, stifle incentive to excel and stifle innovation. This article evaluates these reforms which increased public employer power to act unilaterally in light of my prior work on collective representation of public employees. That prior work focused on how public sector labor law doctrine channels union representation into narrow …

To Cloak The Within: Protecting Employees From Personality Testing, Elizabeth De Armond

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Employees and job applicants are often subjected to personality tests that seek sensitive, internal information. These tests can intrude on individual privacy simply by their inquisition, and disclosure of their results can pigeonhole and stigmatize people. The work of sociologist Erving Goffman offers insights into the nature of these harms. Furthermore, the personality tests often do not reliably and accurately measure personality traits, and employers may not have accurately identified traits that enhance performance in specific jobs. Current legal structures, including the federal and state constitutions and the Americans with Disabilities Act, may apply to such tests, but are inadequate …

Decoupling Employment, Marcia L. Mccormick

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The protected class approach to employment discrimination has not solved the problem of discrimination or of a just distribution of resources. Not only do race and sex prejudice continue to exist, but material and subjective disadvantage continues to be strongly linked to race and sex. While our laws have made social changes, progress on those changes stalled in the 1980s. Some might even say that the protected class approach to discrimination has actually entrenched inequality more deeply into our social fabric.

This Article seeks a purpose-driven approach to finding solutions to the problems of discrimination, asking why it is that …

New Nip In The Bud: Does The Obama Board's Preemptive Strike Doctrine Enhance Tactical Employment Law Strategies?, Michael C. Duff

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In this essay I revisit the classic debate concerning when worker activity is sufficiently “concerted” to be covered by the National Labor Relations Act, a statute covering certain private sector protected “concerted” activity by workers. When workers are obviously engaged in concerted “labor” activity — classically activity like striking, picketing, or even just complaining about working conditions — they are generally protected against employer reprisal for doing so. Over the last few decades there has been disagreement about the definition and limits of “concert.” My renewed interest in this dormant but not dead subject was piqued by the “Obama Board’s” …

Virtual Whistleblowing, Miriam A. Cherry

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With the advent of YouTube, blogs, social networking, and whistleblower websites such as WikiLeaks, the paradigm of whistleblowing is changing. The new paradigm for “virtual whistleblowing” is increasingly online, networked, and anonymous. While whistleblowing can take place in many contexts, this symposium article concentrates on the impact of technological changes on employment law whistleblowing. My contention for some time has been that existing regulation has been inadequate to cover existing forms of whistleblowing. Therefore, it is not surprising that existing whistleblowing laws have also failed to keep pace with the changes brought by modern technology. If older laws cannot be …

Workplace Reform In A Jobless Recovery, Marcia L. Mccormick

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In 2012, the United States was recovering from a recession and policy makers were debating how to solve the country’s economy. This essay looks at the labor and employment reforms (or lack thereof) of President Obama’s first term, and the differing views of the role of government in creating jobs. The article challenges us to think beyond the two solutions commonly discussed: de-regulation and a “New Deal” program.

There are ways current lawmakers could come together to help protect jobs. Some of the solutions offered by the article include using automatic contribution plans, promoting part-time work, and giving employees more …

Gender, Family, And Work, Marcia L. Mccormick

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The country has prohibited sex discrimination since the 1960’s, but society continues to view women and men differently because women give birth, breastfeed, and are traditional caregivers. This article takes a historical look at court decisions and legislative efforts to address equality where men and women are not similarly situated and also explores recent developments and current debates, such as caregiver discrimination, lactation rooms and breaks, and the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate. Despite the abundance of legislation and court decisions over the past forty years, much progress still needs to be made.

Compassion And Coalitions: A Review Of Reshaping The Work Family Debate: Why Men And Class Matter By Joan Williams, Carolyn Shapiro

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Reshaping the Work-Family Debate: Why Men and Class Matter by Joan Williams is illuminating, intellectually challenging, and insightful. It is not, however, a typical law professor book. Neither academic inquiry nor policy analysis (although it contains elements of both), Reshaping the Work-Family Debate is more of a manifesto. Williams seeks measurable and meaningful change in the family and work lives of Americans, even if that change is imperfect or incomplete, and she sees theoretical or ideological rigidity as one obstacle to such change.

Williams believes that coalition-building is essential to addressing the work family challenges she identifies. Although she has …

The Garcetti Virus, Nancy M. Modesitt

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In an era where corporate malfeasance has imposed staggering costs on society, ranging from the largest oil spill in recorded history to the largest government bailout of Wall Street, one would think that those who uncover corporate wrongdoing before it causes significant harm should receive awards. Employees are particularly well-placed to uncover such wrongdoing within companies. However, rather than reward these employees, employers tend to fire or marginalize them. While there are statutory protections for whistleblowers, a disturbing new trend appears to be developing: courts are excluding from the protection of whistleblowing statutes employees who report wrongdoing as part of …