Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

Labour Effects Of Corporate Groups In Canada, Eric Tucker, Abdalla Barqawi

Articles & Book Chapters

In Canada, the norms of capitalist legality are deeply entrenched. As a result, businesses are generally free to structure their affairs in any way that serves their interests. One of the most foundational norms is that each corporation has a distinct legal personality. Not only does this protect shareholders and directors from personal responsibility for the corporation’s liabilities, but it also means that one corporation is not normally liable for the obligations of another corporation even though both corporations are owned and controlled by the same individuals.

A Different Class Of Care: The Benefits Crisis And Low-Wage Workers, Trina Jones

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

"Dependent Contractors" In The Gig Economy: A Comparative Approach, Miriam A. Cherry, Antonio Aloisi

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Panel 1: Perspectives On Transactions In Comic Books, David Gallaher, Larry Hama, Lillian Laserson, Matthew Tynan, Thomas Crowell

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Rehabilitate, Don't Recidivate: A Reframing Of The Ban The Box Debate, Jacqueline G. Kelley

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

2016 Survey Of Rhode Island Law: Cases And Public Laws Of Note

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Agency Law And The New Economy, Mark J. Loewenstein

Publications

This article considers the status of workers in the "new economy," defined as the sharing economy (e.g., Uber, Lyft) and the on-demand economy. The latter refers to the extensive and growing use of staffing companies by established businesses in many different industries to provide all or a portion of their workforce. Workers in both the sharing economy and the on-demand economy are, generally speaking, at a disadvantage in comparison to traditional employees. Uber drivers, for example, are typically considered independent contractors, not employees, and therefore are not covered under federal and state laws that protect or provide benefits to employees. …

The Future Of Fast Food Governance, Andrew Elmore

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Wal-Mart V. Dukes On Employment Discrimination Class Actions Five Years Out: A Forecast That Suggests More Of A Wave Than A Tsunami, Suzette M. Malveaux

Publications

No abstract provided.

Glatt V. Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc., Rodger Quigley

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

No abstract provided.

Making The Minimum Wage Work: An Examination Of The Economic Impact Of The Minimum Wage, Steve P. Calandrillo, Taylor Halperin

Articles

With the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, Congress mandated a federal “living wage” in order to “maintain the minimum standard of living necessary for the health, efficiency, and general well-being of workers.” Advocates have long insisted that increases in the minimum wage result in a net gain to employees’ standard of living. Critics have countered that those gains come at the expense of higher prices and shrinking overall employment numbers, leaving a new class of potential workers out in the cold.

This Article synthesizes the empirical economic impact data from minimum wage increases over the past …

Deflategate: What's The Steelworkers Trilogy Got To Do With It?, Anne M. Lofaso

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Contracting Correctness: A Rubric For Analyzing Morality Clauses, Patricia S. Abril, Nicholas Greene

Articles

Morality clauses give a contracting party the right to terminate if the other party behaves badly or embarrassingly. A curious product of twentieth-century Hollywood, these contract clauses have traditionally been used to control the antics of entertainers and athletes. The current politically-sensitive historical moment, combined with the internet's ability to broadcast widely and permanently, has put everyone's off-duty speech, conduct, and reputation under the microscope. Media reports detailing people's digital falls from grace abound. For fear of negative association, businesses are more attuned than ever to the extracurricular acts of their agents and associates-and are increasingly binding them to morality …

The Sharing Economy And The Edges Of Contract Law: Comparing U.S. And U.K. Approaches, Miriam A. Cherry

Faculty Publications

Technology and the rise of the on-demand or sharing economy have created new and diverse structures for how businesses operate and how work is conducted. Some of these matters are intermediated by contract, but in other situations, contract law may be unhelpful. For example, contract law does little to resolve worker classification problems on new platforms, such as ridesharing applications. Other forms of online work create even more complex problems, such as when work is disguised as an innocuous task like entering a code or answering a question, or when work is gamified and hidden as a leisure activity. Other …

Are Uber And Transportation Network Companies The Future Of Transportation (Law) And Employment (Law)?, Miriam A. Cherry

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Uber, Lyft, and other transportation network companies (“TNCs”), have garnered a great deal of attention in the media and popular press for the efficiencies of their service, their “disruptive” business models, and their labor practices. Uber has almost 400,000 drivers in California and Massachusetts alone. Other TNCs have countless drivers of their own, and TNCs have become especially popular in densely populated cities. Gone are the days when one needed to hail or flag down a taxi, or call a dispatcher to request one. Now customers can summon TNC drivers using “apps” on their smartphones, and TNC platforms match …

"Dependent Contractors" In The Gig Economy: A Comparative Approach, Miriam A. Cherry, Antonio Aloisi

Faculty Publications

In recent years, lawsuits alleging the misclassification of workers as “independent contractors” rather than “employees” have become widespread in the United States. Determining employee status is important because such status is a gateway to many substantive legal rights. In response, some commentators have proposed an in-between hybrid category just for the gig economy. However, such an intermediate category is not new. In fact, it has existed in many countries for decades, producing successful results in some and misadventure in others. We use a comparative approach to analyze the experiences of Canada, Italy, and Spain with the intermediate category. In Italy, …

The Law And Policy Of People Analytics, Matthew T. Bodie, Miriam A. Cherry, Marcia L. Mccormick, Jintong Tang

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Recently, leading technology companies such as Google and IBM have started experimenting with "people analytics," a new data-driven approach to human resources management. People analytics is just one example of the phenomenon of "big data," in which analyses of huge sets of quantitative information are used to guide a variety of decisions. Applying big data to workplace situations could lead to more effective work outcomes, as in Moneyball, where the Oakland A's baseball franchise used statistics to assemble a winning team on a shoestring budget. People analytics is the name given to this new approach to personnel management …

Transsexual, Transgender, Trans: Reading Judicial Nomenclature In Title Vii Cases, Kris Franklin, Sarah Chinn

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Public Policy And Workers' Rights: Wrongful Discipline Actions And Good-Faith Beliefs, Ann C. Mcginley, Nicole B. Porter

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to provide our thoughts on Chapter 5 of the ALI's Restatement of the Law: Employment Law ("Restatement of Employment Law"), concerning "The Tort of Wrongful Discharge in Violation of Public Policy."'

...

Instead of a detailed critique of Chapter 5's provisions, we have chosen to focus on two significant issues that we see as problematic and worthy of further discussion. The first involves the elimination in the final draft of the Restatement of protection against wrongful discipline, which left only the protection against wrongful discharge that violates public policy.

...

The second …

Better Than Basic Income? Liberty, Equality, And The Regulation Of Working Time, Matthew Dimick

Journal Articles

Basic income has attracted the attention of academics, policy makers, and politicians around the globe. Basic income—a no-strings-attached cash transfer made to all citizens of a country, rich or poor—has been lauded as a plan to eliminate poverty, reduce income inequality, redress imbalances in the labor market, remedy the impending problem of mass technology-induced unemployment—the “robot apocalypse”—and make possible meaningful lives for those otherwise dependent on menial work in the labor market. It has also been proposed as an efficient, nonpaternalistic, and stigma-free alternative to existing welfare state policies. This Article compares basic income to an alternative policy proposal: the …

Emerging Internal Control In Institutional Arbitration, Meng Chen

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

To some extent, the charm of international commercial arbitration derives from its complexity, involving many inherent contradictions. It is developed as autonomous and internationalized dispute resolution, while it inevitably relies on sovereign support. With arbitration becoming more and more internationalized and autonomous, rules and regulations generated inside of the arbitration community have gradually played important roles in arbitration governance. Contributions from numerous international arbitration institutions are particularly noticeable in this development. Institutional arbitration takes the lead in the development of international commercial arbitration. Rules and regulations generated in institutional arbitration practice not only facilitate single institutional arbitration processes, but also …

The Law And Policy Of People Analytics, Matthew T. Bodie, Miriam A. Cherry, Marcia L. Mccormick, Jintong Tang

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

Panel 2: Comic Book Jurisprudence With Q&A, Karen Berger, Lillian Laserson, Paul Levitz, Robert Sikoryak, Brett Frischmann

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Clear Statement Rules And The Integrity Of Labor Arbitration, Stephen F. Ross, Roy Eisenhardt

Faculty Scholarship

Under the common law, employment contracts are submitted to civil courts to resolve disputes over interpretation, breach, and remedies. As an alternative, parties in labor contexts can agree to resolution by an impartial arbitrator, whose decision is reviewed deferentially by judges. Where employees are subject to rules of a private association, they are often contractually obligated to submit their claims to an internal association officer or committee; the common law provides for judicial review more limited than a civil contract but more searching than is the case for an impartial labor arbitrator. Recently, the National Football League and its players …

The Next Iteration Of Progressive Corporate Law, Matthew T. Bodie

All Faculty Scholarship

A wave of progressive corporate law scholarship in the late 1980s and early 1990s reimagined corporate law from the perspective of employees, consumers, and other stakeholders left behind by shareholder primacy. Almost thirty years later, it is time to revisit this literature and consider what progressive corporate law should be in the 21st Century. This essay argues for three changes: (1) a move to the theory of the firm as the underlying economic literature; (2) a focus on employees, rather than stakeholders more generally, and (3) an effort to change statutory and structural aspects of corporate law, such as board …

The Best Way Out Is Always Through: Changing The Employment At-Will Default To Protect Personal Autonomy, Matthew T. Bodie

All Faculty Scholarship

Employment at-will is the default rule of termination for the vast majority of American employment relationships. The rule creates a presumption—a strong one—that the contract for employment allows either party to terminate the contract at any point in time. Since its inception, this bright line rule has given way to carefully curated exceptions, primarily to protect against discrimination and retaliation. This Article proposes that state courts create a new exception to the at-will rule—or, perhaps more accurately, acknowledge an intricacy within the existing default. The personal-autonomy presumption would modify at-will to make clear that employers will not take any action …

People Analytics And Invisible Labor, Miriam A. Cherry

All Faculty Scholarship

This article explores two trends in labor and employment law: people analytics and invisible labor. People analytics includes the practice of employers using quantitative data to make objective decisions regarding employees. Invisible labor includes work that is unrecognized because it involves emotional work, or that is hidden due to the intermediation of technology. The article then discusses the paradox of the two trends. As people analytics relies on data for decision-making, how can employers use data analytics if there are increasingly invisible components to work? The article considers solutions: should people analytics include components of hidden labor, explicitly recognize and …

Are Uber And Transportation Network Companies The Future Of Transportation (Law) And Employment (Law)?, Miriam A. Cherry

All Faculty Scholarship

Transportation network companies (“TNCs”) such as Uber and Lyft manage ridesharing platforms that have increased efficiency and convenience for many passengers. These platforms, however, have also opened the door to many legal and regulatory issues pertaining to their business practices, employment structures, and transportation law and policy. This article provides a perspective on the economic, social, technical, and political aspects of TNCs in two steps, focusing on transportation and employment. First, it examines the future of TNCs in transportation, noting that TNCs could do more in terms of environmentalism to live up to the promise of the “sharing” economy. Second, …

The Sharing Economy And The Edges Of Contract Law: Comparing U.S. And U.K. Approaches, Miriam A. Cherry

All Faculty Scholarship

Technology and the rise of the on-demand or sharing economy have created new and diverse structures for how businesses operate and how work is conducted. Some of these matters are intermediated by contract, but in other situations, contract law may be unhelpful. For example, contract law does little to resolve worker classification problems on new platforms, such as ridesharing applications. Other forms of online work create even more complex problems, such as when work is disguised as an innocuous task like entering a code or answering a question, or when work is gamified and hidden as a leisure activity. Other …