Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

The Great American Makeover: The Sexing Up And Dumbing Down Of Women's Work After Jespersen V. Harrah's Operating Company, Inc., Dianne Avery

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Hitting The Legal Diversity Market Home: Minority Women Strike Out , Leeann O'Neill

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

All In A Day's Work: Advocating The Employment Rights Of Day Laborers , Liza Zamd

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Legislative Updates

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

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 …

The Pension Protection Act Of 2006: An Overview Of Sweeping Changes In The Law Governing Retirement Plans, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 843 (2007), Craig C. Martin, Joshua Rafsky

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Past, Present And Future Of Health Care Reform: Can It Happen?, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 767 (2007), David Pratt

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Banning Smoking In Chicago's Social Scene: Protecting Labor And Broadening Public Health Policy, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1063 (2007), Adrienne Detanico

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Much Ado About The Meaning Of "Benefit Accrual": The Issue Of Age Discrimination In Hybrid Cash Balance Plan Qualification Is Dying But Not Yet Dead, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 867 (2007), Barry Kozak, Joshua Waldbeser

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Who Is Entitled To Survivor Benefits From Erisa Plans?, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 919 (2007), Albert Feuer

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Labor Regulation, Union Avoidance And Organized Labor Relations Strategies On Tribal Lands: New Indian Gaming Strategies In The Wake Of San Manuel Band Of Indians V. National Labor Relations Board, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1259 (2007), D. Michael Mcbride Iii, H. Leonard Court

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Foreword, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. Xix (2007), Kathryn L. Moore

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Secrets, Lies & Erisa: The Social Ethics Of Misrepresentations And Omissions In Summary Plan Descriptions, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 731 (2007), Alison Mcmorran Sulentic

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ending The Silence: Thai H-2a Workers, Recruitment Fees, And The Fair Labor Standards Act, Andrea L. Schmitt

Washington International Law Journal

Increasing numbers of Thai workers are coming to the United States using “H-2A” temporary agricultural worker visas. Compared with their Latin American counterparts, Thai H-2A workers are more vulnerable to poor working conditions and other abusive employment practices for two reasons. First, the workers often pay large recruitment fees to labor recruiters in Thailand, and they therefore arrive with a much weightier debt burden. This debt, combined with conditions inherent in the H-2A system, puts intense pressure on workers to remain silent. Second, Thai workers are more culturally and linguistically isolated in rural U.S. communities than their Latin American counterparts. …

Code Or Contract: Whether Wal-Mart's Code Of Conduct Creates A Contractual Obligation Between Wal-Mart And The Employees Of Its Foreign Suppliers, Katherine E. Kenny

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

This comment examines whether corporate codes of conduct and more specifically, Wal-Mart's Code of Conduct, are binding contracts between foreign suppliers and their employees or whether they are voluntary and non-contractual devices. An analysis of U.S. law and the text and implementation of Wal-Mart's Code of Conduct reveals that the Code should not be interpreted as a contract binding on foreign suppliers and their employees for the breach of contract for denial of minimum and overtime wages, the breach of contract for forced labor, and the breach of contract for denial of the fundamental right to freely associate. The comment …

The Afl-Cio — Ndlon Agreement: Five Proposals For Advancing The Partnership, Jayesh M. Rathod

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

The Pursuit Of Justice Is Without Borders: Binational Strategies For Defending Migrants’ Rights, Victoria Gavito

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

The Law And Economics Of Identity, Rafael Gely

Faculty Publications

A growing number of legal scholars have written about the demands that society and particular employers have placed on non-traditional employees to perform their identities, “or make themselves palatable” to their employers, by comporting with the criteria that the institution values. These authors have forcefully made the argument that some of these requirements are actually a form of class subordination; as a response, they argue for various forms of legal intervention.

A Finger In The Dike? An Examination Of The Efficacy Of State And Federal Attempts To Use Law To Stem Outsourcing, Beverley Earle, Geralk A. Madek, Christina Madek

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Many people, not just in the United States, are concerned about the implications of this growth in outsourcing for the future of business. State governments in particular are trying to stop outsourcing and are using the law as a means to do so. However, are these attempts, which are variants of the old "buy American" programs, doomed to be ineffective and ultimately protectionist, without really protecting American business? This paper will examine the developments of offshoring, outsourcing, and insourcing in Part II. Part III examines both state and federal legal efforts to restrict this growth. Part IV examines the WTO …

Reconciling The Public Policy Exception To Enforcing Contracts With Title Vii's Public Policy On Disciplining Harassers, Stephen Plass

St. Thomas Law Review

This article looks at the evolution of the public policy doctrine and its effects on Title VII when unionized employees are dismissed for harassment. Some writers have questioned whether the Court eliminated the public policy exception by defining it so narrowly. But, the focus of commentary has been on the effects of the Eastern decision in the traditional collective bargaining context where the need to limit judicial involvement is great. However, the public policy doctrine's impact is no longer limited to traditional contract issues that are unregulated. As a result, the doctrine's impact on the operation and goals of Title …

Days Without Immigrants: Analysis And Implications Of The Treatment Of Immigration Rallies Under The National Labor Relations Act, Michael C. Duff

All Faculty Scholarship

The massive immigration rallies of early 2006 were prompted by anticipated congressional action classifying all unauthorized workers as felons subject to immediate deportation. While a product of federal immigration policy, the rallies implicate federal labor law because they could be characterized as concerted employee action resulting in a series of work stoppages.

Some employees were discharged for missing work to attend the rallies, so an initial question is whether participation in the rallies is protected activity under the National Labor Relations Act. But even assuming the rallies were attended by unauthorized workers, those workers are undeniably employees within the meaning …

Egalitarianism And Exclusion: U.S. Guest Worker Programs And A Non-Subordination Approach To The Labor-Based Admission Of Nonprofessional Foreign National, Andrew Elmore

Articles

No abstract provided.

Avoiding Harm Otherwise: Reframing Women Employees' Responses To The Harms Of Sexual Harassment, Margaret E. Johnson

All Faculty Scholarship

This article concerns the concepts of employee harm and harm avoidance within the liability framework for hostile work environment sexual harassment by a supervisor. Whether an employer is liable for supervisor sexual harassment depends in part on whether or not the employee avoids her harm or mitigates her damages resulting from the sexual harassment. Despite the law's interest in employee's harm avoidance, courts have failed to fully explore the vast array of harms resulting from sexual harassment and the variety of ways in which an employee avoids these multiple harms. This article reframes the legal discussion of an employee's actions …

“An Ingenious Man Enabled By Contract”: Entrepreneurship And The Rise Of Contract, Catherine Fisk

Faculty Scholarship

A legal ideology emerged in the 1870s that celebrated contract as the body of law with the particular purpose of facilitating the formation of productive exchanges that would enrich the parties to the contract and, therefore, society as a whole. Across the spectrum of intellectual property, courts used the legal fiction of implied contract, and a version of it particularly emphasizing liberty of contract, to shift control of workplace knowledge from skilled employees to firms while suggesting that the emergence of hierarchical control and loss of entrepreneurial opportunity for creative workers was consistent with the free labor ideology that dominated …

Boxing Out The Big Box Retailers: The Legal And Social Impact Of Big Box Living Wage Legislation, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1339 (2007), Christine Niemczyk

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rejecting Reasonableness: A New Look At Title Vii's Anti-Retaliation Provision, Briane J. Gorod

American University Law Review

This Article argues that the “reasonableness” requirement of Title VII should be rejected. Under this approach, a plaintiff’s complaint would be protected unless the defendant could establish that the plaintiff was acting in bad faith at the time she made the complaint. Such a standard would offer employers some protection from retaliation suits based on frivolous complaints without compromising the significant goals the retaliation provision can serve. Part I provides background on Title VII and the anti-retaliation provision, particularly the “opposition” clause, explains why the anti-retaliation provision is necessary and how courts have interpreted the scope of the conduct it …

Comparative Evidence Or Common Experience: When Does "Substantial Limitation" Require Proof Under The Americans With Disabilities Act?, Cheryl L. Anderson

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Outing Outcomes: An Empirical Study Of Confidential Employment Discrimination Settlements, Minna J. Kotkin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Rethinking The Tripartite Division Of American Work Law, Michael Fischl

Faculty Articles and Papers

The holy trinity of American work law - employment discrimination, labor law, and employment law - has governed the American workplace for over four decades and is also firmly entrenched in the curricula of most law schools. But the discrete lenses provided by the conventional trinity make it difficult to bring into focus two distinct but related dimensions of the accelerating integration of American work law. Thus, we are on the one hand experiencing an accelerating doctrinal integration of our field, as the settings in which nominally out of area law plays a significant governance role are rapidly proliferating. At …

Contributory Disparate Impacts In Employment Discrimination Law, Peter Siegelman

Faculty Articles and Papers

An employer who adopts a facially neutral employment practice that disqualifies a larger proportion of protected-class applicants than others is liable under a disparate impact theory. Defendants can escape liability if they show that the practice is justified by business necessity. But demonstrating business necessity requires costly validation studies that themselves impose a significant burden on defendants-upwards of $100,000 according to some estimates. This Article argues that an employer should have a defense against disparate impact liability if it can show that protected-class applicants failed to make reasonable efforts to train or prepare for a job related test. That is, …