Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

Predicting The Future Of Employment Law: Reflecting Or Refracting Market Forces?, Stewart J. Schwab

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In this Article I predict how employment law will change in the future. My task is positive rather than normative. I will not argue that the developments I foresee are good ones to be applauded. Rather, they arise "inevitably" from the way the law will react to changes in labor markets.

Of course, as Professor Ronald Dworkin emphasizes, in developing a theory of law one cannot sharply distinguish between the positive and normative. Dworkin points out that even in describing the current legal framework, one must choose what to highlight and what to ignore, a process based on values. When …

Conflating Scope Of Right With Standard Of Review: The Supreme Court's Strict Scrutiny Of Congressional Efforts To Enforce The Fourteenth Amendment, Melissa Hart

Publications

No abstract provided.

Fulfilling The Bargain: How The Science Of Ergonomics Can Inform The Laws Of Workers’ Compensation, Jason M. Solomon

Faculty Publications

In the last decade, cumulative trauma disorders have become a significant percentage of reported workplace injuries and litigated workers'compensation claims. Arising from the accumulated impact of daily work activities on the body, these injuries do not fall neatly within "disease" categories which comprise workers' compensation laws. As a result, courts and legislatures have struggled to properly evaluate workers' compensation claims for these injuries. This Note looks at the legal treatment of cumulative trauma injuries in light of the "original bargain" of workers' compensation, where workers give up a tort remedy against their employers in exchange for guaranteed, but limited, compensation …

Hardball, Politics, And The Nlrb, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Second Generation Employment Discrimination: A Structural Approach, Susan Sturm

Faculty Scholarship

The judiciary's traditional rule-based approach has been successful in reducing overt discrimination against women and people of color. It has been less effective in addressing more subtle and complex forms of workplace inequity. These second generation forms of bias result from patterns of interaction, informal norms, networking, mentoring, and evaluation. Drawing on the potential of recent Supreme Court decisions, Professor Sturm proposes a structural regulatory solution to this problem of second generation employment discrimination. Her approach links the efforts of courts, workplaces, employees, lawyers, and mediating organizations to construct a regime that encourages employers to engage in effective problem solving. …

Restrictive Covenants, Employee Training, And The Limits Of Transaction-Cost Analysis, Gillian Lester

Faculty Scholarship

Restrictive covenants are an increasingly common feature of employment, used across a wide range of industries, occupations, and employees. In its most common form, a restrictive covenant prohibits an employee from competing with the employer within a certain geographic area fora specified period of time after departure, usually one or two years. Sometimes these clauses are drawn more narrowly, proscribing specific activities such as continued dealings with former customers. Regardless of scope, the typical remedy when an employee breaches such a covenant is injunctive relief.

A substantial literature within law and economics debates the merits of restrictive covenants from an …

Unemployment Insurance And Wealth Redistribution, Gillian Lester

Faculty Scholarship

This Article evaluates the merit of liberalizing unemployment insurance eligibility as a means to achieve progressive wealth redistribution-an idea that has recently gained popularity among policymakers and legal scholars. Unemployment insurance (UI) provides temporary, partial wage replacement to workers who suffer unexpected job loss, but it tends to exclude workers who have very low wages or hours of work, or who quit for reasons considered "personal" (for example, to accommodate family demands). Professor Lester argues that while redistribution to workers who are poor or who have caregiving obligations is a desirable goal, expanding UI is a poor way to do …

The Nlra: A Call To Collective Bargaining, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Other Publications

A century ago the legal specialty of most members of this audience would have been known as Master and Servant Law. By the time my generation entered law school, the Decennial Dgest had just added a new topic - Labor Relations Law. That of course dealt with collective bargaining and union-management relations generally. Now, a half century further along, we might seem to have come full circle, to judge by the lectures of the two eminent jurists who inaugurated this series. Both Abner Mikva and Richard Posner spoke on highly important and timely subjects, and yet those would be classified, …

Victimized Twice -- The Intersection Of Domestic Violence And The Workplace: Legal Reform Through Curriculum Development, Lea B. Vaughn

Articles

Domestic violence is at least a two-fold problem for American society. On the one hand, it is one of the leading causes of violence at the workplace against women. On the other, it prevents many women from attaining the economic security that would enable them to escape violence. After describing the background of this problem, this paper will canvass current legal remedies that are available to help battered women achieve economic security. This survey leads to the conclusion that the current pastiche of remedies is often ineffective because of their piecemeal approach to the problem, or because current doctrine does …

Enslaved To Fashion: Corporations, Consumers, And The Campaign For Worker Rights In The Global Economy, George Demartino

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of Levi’s Children: Coming to Terms with Human Rights in the Global Marketplace by Karl Schoenberger. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000. 288pp.

Levi’s Children presents a sobering account of the tribulations of a transnational corporation with a heart trying its best to navigate honorably the polluted moral waters of the global economy. San Francisco-based Levi Strauss and Company, maker of the iconic Levi’s jeans and other apparel, sought to maintain a commitment to social responsibility in the face of intensifying financial pressures to do otherwise. Author Karl Schoenberger puts this account to good effect, illuminating the extraordinary …

The Employment Law Decisions Of The October 2000 Term Of The Supreme Court: A Review And Analysis, Ann C. Hodges

Law Faculty Publications

During the October 2000 Term, the Supreme Court delivered major setbacks for employees in Circuit City Stores, Inc. v. Adams, which upheld mandatory and binding arbitration of federal and state employment discrimination claims through arbitration clauses forced upon employees as a condition of employment, and in Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama v. Garrett, which shielded state employers from federal court law suits brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act by victims of disability discrimination in employment. Employees escaped harm in Pollard v. E.I du Pont de Nemours & Co., in which the Court followed nearly unanimous circuit …

"Sometimes The Road Less Traveled Is Less Traveled For A Reason": The Need For Change In Georgia's Employment-At-Will Doctrine And Refusal To Adopt The Public Policy Exception, Nancy Baumgarten

Georgia Law Review

This Note calls for the adoption of the public policy exception to the employment-at-will doctrine in the state of Georgia. Georgia employees need a viable claim at the state level since federal relief may not always be an option for a Georgia plaintiff. Furthermore, the adoption of this exception is directly in line with Georgia's policies in other areas of law. Finally, since it is the same employers who have placed Georgia in the bottom twenty-five percent of the nation for the highest rate of job discrimination that can terminate Georgia' employees for reasons which violate public policy, the need …

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 …

The Changing Role Of Labor Arbitration (Symposium: New Rules For A New Game: Regulating Employment Relationships In The 21st Century), Theodore J. St. Antoine

Articles

A quarter century ago, in a provocative and prophetic article, David E. Feller lamented the imminent close of what he described as labor arbitration's "golden age." I have expressed reservations about that characterization, insofar as it suggested an impending shrinkage in the stature of arbitration. But Professor Feller was right on target in one important respect. Labor arbitration was going to change dramatically from the autonomous institution in the relatively self-contained world of union-management relations which it had been from the end of World War II into the 1970s. When the subject matter was largely confined to union-employer agreements, arbitration …

Gilmer In The Collective Bargaining Context, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Articles

Can a privately negotiated arbitration agreement deprive employees of the statutory right to sue in court on claims of discrimination in employment because of race, sex, religion, age, disability, and similar grounds prohibited by federal law? Two leading U.S. Supreme Court decisions, decided almost two decades apart, reached substantially different answers to this questionand arguably stood logic on its head in the process. In the earlier case of Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co., involving arbitration under a collective bargaining agreement, the Court held an adverse award did not preclude a subsequent federal court action by the black grievant alleging racial discrimination. …

A Framework For The Rejuvenation Of The American Labor Movement, Michael C. Harper

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Breastfeeding In The American Workplace, Shana M. Christrup

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Foreword, Maria O'Brien

Faculty Scholarship

Over the past twenty or so years, the range of employee benefits offered by employers - both large and small - has expanded dramatically. The old (and relatively short) list of "fringes" typically included health insurance, a pension plan, paid holidays and group life insurance. There was, of course, some variation in this list, especially across industries. But, by and large, employers did not concern themselves in a formal way with "modern" benefits such as elder care, child care, legal assistance, flex time, and parental leaves. As a recent study by the Society for Human Resource Management' suggests, employers have …

Can Contested Disciplinary Actions Be Considered In Subsequent Termination Proceedings? An Analysis Of United States Postal Service V. Gregory, Barbara J. Fick

Journal Articles

This article previews the Supreme Court case U.S. Postal Service v. Gregory, 534 U.S. 1, 2001. The author expected the case to examine whether, under the Civil Service Reform Act, the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) abuse its discretion when it considers prior discipline that is currently being challenged by the employee in ongoing grievance proceedings?

With All Due Deference: What Constitutes The Exercise Of "Independent Judgment" In The Workplace? An Analysis Of Nlrb V. Kentucky River Community Care, Barbara J. Fick

Journal Articles

This article previews the Supreme Court case NLRB v. Kentucky River Community Care, Inc., 532 U.S. 706 (2001). The author expected the Court to examine two issues: (1) What is the appropriate interpretation of the statutory phrase "independent judgment" as used in § 2(11) of the National Labor Relations Act in defining which individuals are supervisors; and (2) Who has the burden of proving that an employee meets the definition of supervisor?