Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

Survey Of (Mostly Outdated And Often Ineffective) Laws Affecting Work-Related Monitoring, Robert Sprague

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article reviews various laws that affect work-related monitoring. It reveals that most of our privacy laws were adopted well before smartphones and the Internet became ubiquitous; they still hunt for physical secluded locations; and, because they are based on reasonable expectations of privacy, they can easily be circumvented by employer policies that eliminate that expectation by informing workers they have no right to privacy in the workplace. This article concludes that the future—indeed the present—does not bode well for worker privacy.

Reconsidering The Immutability Of "Race": An Examination Of The Disconnect Between "Race" In Title Vii Jurisprudence And Social Science Literature, Natalie Tupta

Graduate Student Research Symposium

This paper discusses reconceptualizing racial discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act in light of modern social science theories on racial identity. Title VII prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and the judiciary calls these bases for discrimination “protected classes.” To bring a successful legal claim under Title VII, a person must demonstrate that she actually belongs to a protected class. In the case of a claim of racial discrimination, this means the plaintiff must belong to a racial group based on immutable characteristics, which are traits that cannot simply …

Dignity Takings And Wage Theft, César F. Rosado Marzán

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Damaged Bodies, Damaged Lives: Immigrant Worker Injuries As Dignity Takings, Rachel Nadas, Jayesh Rathod

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Government data consistently affirms that foreign-born workers in the U.S. experience high rates of on-the-job illness and injury. This article explores whether—and under what circumstances—these occupational harms suffered by immigrant workers constitute a dignity taking. The article argues that some injuries suffered by foreign-born workers are indirect takings by the state due to the government’s lackluster oversight and limited penalties for violations of occupational safety and health laws. Using a framework of the body as property, the article then explores when work-related injury constitutes an infringement upon a property right. The article contends that the government’s weak enforcement apparatus, coupled …

Taking Note Of Notary Employees: Employer Liability For Notary Employee Misconduct, Nancy Perkins Spyke

Maine Law Review

The law of agency governs the relations between principals, agents, and third persons. A portion of that body of law deals with the liabilities that arise when an agent causes harm to a third party. Situations in which negligent employees cause harm to their employers' customers are ripe for the application of standard agency principles. Those principles dictate that the employer will be liable for the tort of an employee if the tort is committed in the scope of employment. The Restatement (Second) of Agency and case law provide many illustrations. If an employer directs an employee to perform a …

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act: Legitimating Discrimination Against Pregnant Women In The Workforce, Judith G. Greenberg

Maine Law Review

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) has been effective in making the most egregious and obvious forms of pregnancy discrimination illegal. Unfortunately, the PDA has also acted as a shield behind which employers can hide as they discriminate against their pregnant employees. The result is that the PDA permits discrimination based on the very sort of stereotyping that it was expected to eradicate. There are two dominant stereotypes of pregnant women. Both are inconsistent with the image of a good worker. One stereotype connects pregnant women with the home. In one form or another it says, “Pregnant women are/should be preoccupied …

Modernizing Disability Income For Cancer Survivors, Ann C. Hodges

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

The medical progress in cancer treatment is worthy of celebration, as survivors of many cancers are living longer. This good news, however, comes with challenges for those survivors. Empirical evidence from researchers at cancer centers demonstrates the devastating impact that cancer has on employment, resulting in serious financial stress for survivors and their families. My previous research used this empirical data to recommend changes in employment laws to meet the need of survivors to maintain employment. This article builds on the prior research by using the empirical evidence of the employment effects of cancer to recommend changes in the disability …

No Bayesian Solution To The Transposition Fallacy: More Reason To Be Skeptical Of Statistical Proof Of Discrimination, Kingsley R. Browne

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

Statistical proof of discrimination often entails comparisons of the demographics of an employer’s work force with that of the relevant labor force. The statistical study yields a “p-value,” and if the p-value is below some pre-specified level, the disparity is deemed “statistically significant.” The p-value is often interpreted as the probability that the observed disparity was obtained by chance, but equating the p-value with the likelihood that chance caused the disparity is an example of the “transposition fallacy.” Recognizing this fallacy, some commentators have suggested the use of Bayesian methods, under which the probability of discrimination is estimated by incorporating …

The Loyal Matchmaker Dilemma: When Staffing Firms Should Pay For The Sins Of Their Client, Matthew B. Seipel

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

This Article recognizes the “loyal matchmaker” dilemma in employment discrimination law. This dilemma exists when a staffing firm complies with or otherwise acquiesces to its client’s unlawful discrimination against its temporary employee not because of that employee’s race, sex, national origin, disability, etc. Rather, it does so because it sees itself as a loyal matchmaker to the client or because of another lawful reason. In these situations, when should the staffing firm be liable?

Employment discrimination law has failed to give a practical, consistent, and flexible liability standard in this context. Generally, courts hold the staffing firm liable only if …

Foreign Born Latina Earnings And Returns To Education And Experience In The United States, Trevor Mattos

Gastón Institute Publications

The determinants of immigrant earnings have long been a heavily researched topic, beginning with the contributions of Chiswick (1978) and Borjas (1985). The majority of this work focuses on male immigrants. Prior findings provide conflicting results with respect to determinants of native and foreign-born earnings in the U.S. This study, however, focuses on the earnings levels and differential returns to education and experience between native and foreign-born Latina workers in the U.S. using pooled American Community Survey microdata from 2014, 2015, and 2016. The analytical approach borrows from Chiswick’s 1978 paper that utilized cross-sectional regression methods and the human capital …

Labor Law, Economic Narrative And Law & Economics: The Method Is The Problem, Sergio Gamonal C.

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

From The Armed Forces To Unemployment - The United States' Failure To Ensure That Veterans Have The Care They Need And The Benefits That They've Earned, Jennifer Trinkwald Greco

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

International Arbitration As A Hurdle For The Promotion Of Labor Standards: Settling Disputes Over The Dispute Settlement Process, Alex Richman Reinauer

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Fortification Of Inequality: Constitutional Doctrine And The Political Economy, Kate Andrias

Articles

As Parts I and II of this Essay elaborate, the examination yields three observations of relevance to constitutional law more generally: First, judge-made constitutional doctrine, though by no means the primary cause of rising inequality, has played an important role in reinforcing and exacerbating it. Judges have acquiesced to legislatively structured economic inequality, while also restricting the ability of legislatures to remedy it. Second, while economic inequality has become a cause célèbre only in the last few years, much of the constitutional doctrine that has contributed to its flourishing is longstanding. Moreover, for several decades, even the Court’s more liberal …

Rwu First Amendment Blog: Dean Yelnosky's Blog: Ruling Could Destroy Labor Unions As We Know Them 2-26-2018, Michael J. Yelnosky

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

Tik Tok: Time To Eradicate Sexual Assault In The Music Industry Through The Implied Covenant Of Good Faith And Fair Dealing, Chanel Chasanov

DePaul Journal of Women, Gender and the Law

No abstract provided.

Brief In Opposition. Idaho Department Of Corrections V. Fuller, 138 S.Ct. 1345 (2018) (No. 17-959), Eric Schnapper, Ericka Birch, Kass Hartstad

Court Briefs

QUESTION PRESENTED The court of appeals concluded that a reasonable jury could find that actions by supervisors at the Idaho Department of Corrections created a hostile work environment. Petitioner does not seek review of that holding. The question presented is: Did the court of appeals err in concluding that the record contained sufficient evidence to permit a reasonable jury to infer that the actions of those supervisors were gender-based?

Felton V. Douglas County, 134 Nev. Adv. Op. 6 (Feb. 15, 2018), Joshua Garry

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined that when an uncompensated volunteer, who has concurrent private employment and is injured during the course of volunteer work, shall have their average monthly wage for the purposes of workers’ compensation benefits to be the aggregate of the “deemed wage” provided by statute along with their earnings from the concurrent private employment.

Motion To Dismiss For Failure To Succeed On The Merits: The Eeoc And Rule 12(B)(6), Perry F. Austin

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pregnancy As A Normal Condition Of Employment: Comparative And Role-Based Accounts Of Discrimination, Reva B. Siegel

William & Mary Law Review

As the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (PDA) turns forty, it is time to consider how we define pregnancy discrimination.

In recent years, courts have come to define pregnancy discrimination almost exclusively through comparison. Yet our understanding of discrimination, inside and outside the pregnancy context, depends on judgments about social roles as well as comparison. Both Congress and the Court appealed to social roles in defining the wrongs of pregnancy discrimination. In enacting the PDA, Congress repudiated employment practices premised on the view that motherhood is the end of women’s labor force participation, and affirmed a world in which women …

Reconciling Agency Fee Doctrine, The First Amendment, And The Modern Public Sector Union, Courtlyn G. Roser-Jones

Northwestern University Law Review

Few institutions have done more to improve working conditions for the middle class than labor unions. Their efforts, of course, cost money. To fund union activities, thousands of collective bargaining agreements across the nation have long included provisions permitting employers to require employees to pay “fair share” or “agency” fees. In public unions—when the employer is the government—this arrangement creates tension between two important values: the First Amendment’s protection against compelled expression and the collective benefits of worker representation. When confronted with this tension forty years ago in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, the Supreme Court struck an …

Janus V. American Federation Of State, County, And Municipal Employees, Council 31: Brief Of Amici Curiae Economists And Professors Of Law And Economics In Support Of Respondents, J. J. Prescott

Appellate Briefs

Amici curiae are thirty-six distinguished economists and professors of law and economics. They occupy prominent positions at preeminent universities and institutions, and include three Nobel laureates, two recipients of the American Economic Association's prestigious John Bates Clark Medal, and two past Presidents of the American Economic Association. They have no personal stake in the outcome of this case, but have an interest in assisting this Court in understanding the free-rider problem at issue here.

Petitioner's assertion that fair-share fees are unnecessary, and his assumption that employees seek to avoid paying fair-share fees because of commonly-held "beliefs that they do not …

The Justice Of Unequal Pay In The Ufc: An In-Depth Analysis Of The Fighters’ Antitrust Class Action Lawsuit Against The Ufc And The Misplaced Support Of The Proposed Muhammad Ali Expansion Act, Hunter Sundberg

Pace Intellectual Property, Sports & Entertainment Law Forum

In 2016, the Ultimate Fighting Championships (“UFC”) set the record for the largest sale in sports history. The UFC, the primary promotion company of the once fringe sport of mixed martial arts (“MMA”) had matured into a mammoth 4 billion dollar promotion, but not without some growing pains. The league is replete with controversy, mostly dealing with disgruntled athletes over compensation. Athletes of the UFC feel that they are being financially exploited and they may be correct. The athletes are choosing different routes to remedy their pay disparities but they are misguided.

The first course of action chosen by the …

Prop Up The Heavenly Chorus? Labor Unions, Tax Policy, And Political Voice Equality, Philip T. Hackney

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Article contributes to the tax legal literature by providing an analysis of labor unions and how we tax them. Although labor unions as a whole are a very small part of our economy and tax system, by looking at one narrow section of the tax-exempt sector we can shed light on the rest of the exempt sector. Additionally, although most tax policy scholarship focuses on one of three values—equity in an economic sense, efficiency in an economic sense, and administrability—I focus primarily on the value of equity in a governance sense.

I argue that, at least in the …

Bringing Up Baby Under The Fmla: How The Federal Unpaid Maternity Leave System In The United States Will Not Carry To Term, Samantha Jean Quan Forsyth

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This Note will examine current maternity leave laws both within the United States and internationally, and argues that there are major issues with the existing federal law in the United States that render such legislation ineffective. This Note will further argue that because paid maternity leave remains almost exclusively as a benefit employers can choose to provide, the federal government should not only adopt a paid maternity leave program, but also ensure that it is broader and more encompassing than current legislation.

Contracts With Community College Adjunct Faculty Members And Potential Supplemental Benefits To Increase Satisfaction, Kimberly Ann Page

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

ABSTRACT

As state funding to community colleges has fluctuated, many community colleges have hired more adjunct faculty (Desrochers & Hurlburt, 2014).

This qualitative research explored supplemental benefits, which could be included in adjunct faculty contracts with community colleges in order to promote workplace satisfaction, without causing stress on budgets. Adjunct faculty who realize greater job satisfaction are more beneficial to their institutions because they promote student learning and retention (CCCSE, 2014b; Hollenshead, 2010; Jacoby, 2006).

The descriptive study included three phases: record reviews, interviews with key informants and elite informants, and a reflective questionnaire. New England was selected as the …

The History Books Tell It? Collective Bargaining In Higher Education In The 1940s, William A. Herbert

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

This article presents a history of unionization and collective bargaining in higher education during and just after World War II, decades before the establishment of statutory frameworks for labor representation. It examines the collective bargaining program adopted by the University of Illinois in 1945, along with contracts negotiated at other institutions, which demonstrated support for employee self-organization. It will also presents counter-examples of institutions using the courts and congressional investigators to defeat unionization efforts. . Lastly, the article will examine the role of United Public Workers of America (UPWA) and its predecessor unions in organizing and negotiating on behalf of …

Sb 201 - Sick Leave, Mary Elizabeth D. Steinhaus, Chadwick L. Williams

Georgia State University Law Review

The Act amends Georgia’s general provisions relating to labor and industrial relations by adding a new provision that requires qualifying employers to allow their employees to use sick leave to care for immediate family members.

Alternative Means Of Relief For Employment Sex Discrimination, Aiden Spencer

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.