Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

Total Eclipse Of The Court? Janus V. Afscme, Council 31 In Historical, Legal, And Public Policy Contexts, William A. Herbert, Sarah Cudahy, John Wirenius

Publications and Research

The article examines the historical rise and institutionalization of the agency shop in public sector labor relations and its sudden fall in the Supreme Court’s Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31 decision. The authors demonstrate that the rapid rise of public sector unionism took place during a period when most state laws did not require or even permit the agency shop. We also explore the history of the agency shop in New York including the leading role New York City government played in advocating in Albany for legal changes to permit the agency shop to be negotiated. The article then describe …

Google, Charlottesville, And The Need To Protect Private Employees’ Political Speech, Chloe M. Gordils

Brooklyn Law Review

At a time when the freedom of speech is increasingly under attack, the question becomes: what protections are available to employees of private companies who wish to engage in political expression while off the clock? Although public employees are in many ways protected by the First Amendment from government intrusion into their political speech, private employees in many states are left largely unprotected. This note examines the current statutory protections offered to protect private employees from being fired or retaliated against based on their political opinions, and argues that the inconsistency and unpredictability of state laws call for a uniform …

Where Breaking Glass Ceilings Leads To Glass Walls: Gender-Disparate Managerial Decision-Making Power And Authority, Bina Nayee

Fordham Law Review

Today, litigation over plainly discriminatory employment practices is much less common than it was in the two decades following Title VII’s enactment as employers have largely reformed practices that most obviously violate employment discrimination law. But many less obvious employment practices, particularly those embedded in implicit bias or unconscious sex stereotyping, remain. One example is employers’ distribution of managerial decision-making power and authority based on assumptions about sex. Although this particular employment practice has not yet been litigated, there is a strong argument that a legal challenge to this practice could succeed. This Note argues that female managers can and …

A Stute Observation: Re-Examining Washington's Enforcement Of Workplace Safety Regulations, Ben Moore

Washington Law Review

In 1973, the Washington State Legislature enacted the Washington Industrial Safety and Health Act. The stated purpose of the Act was to ensure safe working conditions for the working men and women of Washington. Seventeen years later, the Washington State Supreme Court held that general contractors are per se liable for the WISHA violations of their subcontractors. However, the Washington Department of Labor and Industries has adopted a policy of citing general contractors for subcontractor violations only in limited circumstances. This Comment first outlines the development of worker safety laws in Washington, then examines the effects of the Department’s policy …

Employment Law—The Split Over The Shift: The Burden Of Proving Causation In Claims For Breach Of Fiduciary Duty Under Erisa, William J. Swartzwelder

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Problem Of Wage Theft, Nicole Hallett

Journal Articles

Wage theft inflicts serious harm on America's working poor but has received little attention from policymakers seeking to address income inequality in the United States. This Article provides a comprehensive analysis of the causes of the wage theft crisis and the failure of the current enforcement regime to address it. It argues that existing policy reforms will fail, because they misunderstand the nature of the crisis and the incentives that employers face when deciding to steal workers' wages. It then proposes series of reforms that could work, while arguing that changing the economic calculus alone will be unlikely to solve …

Dads Are Parents, Too: Why Amending The Pregnancy Discrimination Act Is Necessary For Courts To Determine If A Parental Leave Policy Violates Title Vii, Krista Gay

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

To attract millennials desiring a work-life balance, large companies have begun to offer new parent leave to both male and female employees and commonly offer longer leave to women than men. Although a company may offer pregnancy disability leave to women without offering similar leave to men, if the company classifies the leave as parental bonding leave, it must be offered equally. If it is not, as highlighted by recent lawsuits against JP Morgan and Estée Lauder, a Title VII claim can arise. Historically, courts have had difficulty deciding if such a policy does in fact violate Title VII, because …

Competing With Noncompetes: Increasing Restrictions On The Use Of Employment Noncompetition Agreements In New York, Michael A. E. Neville

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

The New York City Council and the former New York State Attorney General recently proposed legislation restricting the use of noncompetition agreements by employers with low-wage employees. While this proposed legislation demonstrates a step following other progressive states that have already restricted the use of noncompetition agreements, recent federal litigation has revealed the loopholes that New York employers may unfairly utilize, such as garden leave provisions, if restrictions are not placed on both employers of low-wage and high-wage employees. This Note recommends that pending legislation be passed only after a thorough revision that focuses on both low-wage and high-wage employees …

Assesing The Gig Economy In Comparative Perspective: How Platform Work Challenges The French And American Legal Orders, Jeremy Pilaar

Journal of Law and Policy

Both the gig economy’s critics and supporters tend to assume that it represents an assault on current employment structures. Comparative theory, however, emphasizes that legal regimes are durable in the face of new challenges. Fortunately, the gig economy’s prevalence throughout the world gives scholars the chance to evaluate this tension. This paper analyzes whether platform work undermines existing legal systems by testing two comparative theories in the United States and France. The first predicts that French law should mobilize against platform firms to protect producers’ livelihoods and that American law should embrace these services for lowering consumer prices. The second …

Valuing The Risk Of Workplace Sexual Harassment, Joni Hersch

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Using data on sexual harassment charges filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, I calculate the risk of sexual harassment by gender, industry, and age and establish that white females, but not nonwhite females, receive a compensating wage differential for exposure to a higher risk of sexual harassment. I use this risk premium to calculate the value of statistical harassment (VSH) in a manner analogous to the calculation of the value of statistical life (VSL). The VSH is around $7.6 million, about three-quarters of the size of the most-commonly cited levels of the VSL, and far above the maximum damages …

The Practice And Tax Consequences Of Nonqualified Deferred Compensation, David I. Walker

Faculty Scholarship

Although nonqualified deferred compensation plans lack explicit tax preferences afforded qualified plans, it is well understood that nonqualified deferred compensation results in a joint tax advantage when employers earn a higher after‐tax return on deferred sums than employees could do on their own. Several commentators have proposed tax reform aimed at leveling the playing field between cash and nonqualified deferred compensation, but reform would not be easy or straightforward. This Article investigates nonqualified deferred compensation practices and shows that joint tax minimization often takes a backseat to accounting priorities and participant diversification concerns. In practice, the largest source of joint …

Termination Of The Employment Contract By Agreement Of The Parties: National Legislation And Foreign Experience, D. Abdullaeva

Review of law sciences

The article is devoted to the investigation of issues of termination of the labour contract by agreement of the parties. The practical significance of this ground and termination of employment contract is analyzed, the differences in the grounds for the termination of the employment contract on the initiative of the employee and by agreement of the parties are revealed. Proposals are made to improve the acting labour legislation in terms of the form and content of the agreement, and the procedure for dismissal on the specified grounds.

Legal Framework For The Protection Of The Rights Of Migrant Workers, M. Tursunova

Review of law sciences

This article is devoted to the legal framework for the right protection of migrant workers. Changes in modern global economic links and world migration processes lead to the understanding of the importance and value of protecting the rights of migrant workers from the point of view of both international and national law. The study observes the theoretical and international legal framework for the right protection of migrant workers, offers suggestions for improving mechanisms for protecting the rights of migrant workers.

Termination Of The Employment Contract By Agreement Of The Parties: National Legislation And Foreign Experience, D. Abdullaeva

Review of law sciences

The article is devoted to the investigation of issues of termination of the labour contract by agreement of the parties. The practical significance of this ground and termination of employment contract is analyzed, the differences in the grounds for the termination of the employment contract on the initiative of the employee and by agreement of the parties are revealed. Proposals are made to improve the acting labour legislation in terms of the form and content of the agreement, and the procedure for dismissal on the specified grounds.

Legal Framework For The Protection Of The Rights Of Migrant Workers, M. Tursunova

Review of law sciences

This article is devoted to the legal framework for the right protection of migrant workers. Changes in modern global economic links and world migration processes lead to the understanding of the importance and value of protecting the rights of migrant workers from the point of view of both international and national law. The study observes the theoretical and international legal framework for the right protection of migrant workers, offers suggestions for improving mechanisms for protecting the rights of migrant workers.

Brief To The National Labor Relations Board By Amicus Curiae Professor Jeffrey M. Hirsch, Jeffrey M. Hirsch

Faculty Publications

In Purple Communications, Inc., 361 N.L.R.B. 1050 (2014), the NLRB set forth a new analysis covering employees’ use of employer-provided email. Under this analysis, which is based on the Supreme Court’s seminal decision in Republic Aviation Corp. v. NLRB, 324 U.S. 793 (1945), the Board presumes that employees who have access to their employer’s email as part of their work duties can use that email for Section 7 purposes during nonwork time. Purple Communications, 361 N.L.R.B. at 1063. The employer can rebut this presumption by showing that special business circumstances justify additional restrictions on employees’ email use. …

Admission Of Deaf Soldiers To The Military: Rethinking The "Undifferentiated Soldier" Paradigm, Michael Schwartz

Arkansas Law Review

Keith Nolan, a deaf man with undergraduate and graduate degrees, asked to be admitted to military training to become a uniformed American soldier. The military said no, and the issue was joined. Nolan’s application presents the Department of Defense (DOD) with an opportunity to reconsider its historical bar to people who are deaf. The Article suggests a new paradigm in thinking about the selection criteria used to screen out deaf applicants for military service, a paradigm rooted in a disability studies framework. With a few exceptions in the Civil War, the United States armed forces have barred people with disabilities, …

Moral Context And Risks Of Death, Dov Waisman

Arkansas Law Review

When an industry poses a risk of premature death to consumers, workers, or others, regulatory agencies employ a figure known as the “value of a statistical life” (VSL) to monetize the life-saving benefit of regulations designed to reduce that risk. Use of the VSL, which currently hovers around $9 million, has been highly controversial. While a number of prominent scholars have vigorously endorsed the VSL as necessary to the cost-benefit analysis of mortality risk regulations, other prominent scholars have vehemently rejected the very idea of attaching a monetary value to a statistical human life. This article stakes out a novel …

Employment By Design: Employees, Independent Contractors And The Theory Of The Firm, Richard R. Carlson

Arkansas Law Review

Employment laws protect “employees” and impose duties on their “employers.” In the modern working world, however, “employee” and “employer” status is not always clear. The status of some workers and the firms they serve can be ambiguous, especially when the workers work as individuals not organized as firms. Individual workers might be “employees,” but they might also be self-employed individuals working as “independent contractors.” Even if it is clear that workers are someone’s “employees,” the identity of the employer can be unclear. If one firm pays “employees” to work mainly or exclusively for another firm that pays the first firm …

Finishing The Job Best Practices For A Diverse Workforce In The Construction Industry V.8 Sept 2018, Susan Moir Scd

Labor Studies Faculty Publication Series

This manual is a work in progress. It is produced by the Policy Group on Tradeswomen’s Issues (PGTI), a regional collaboration of researchers, government agencies, unions, community-based organizations, developers and contractors committed to increasing access for women and people of color to good paying careers in the construction trades. Our goal is to make our shared efforts and experiences helpful to industry leaders who share our commitment. It is based on best practices developed on major projects that came close, met, or exceeded workforce hiring goals. This manual and additional resources are available online at on the PGTI website at …

Si Hay Leyes De Antidiscriminiciòn ¿Por Qué Las Mujeres No Demandan Justicia? Una Mirada Al Litigo De Discriminaciòn De Género Casi Ausente En Brasil, Cesar Zucatti Pritsch

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Total Eclipse Of The Court: Janus V. Afscme, Council 31 In Historical, Legal, And Public Policy Contexts, Sarah W. Cudahy, William A. Herbert, John F. Wirenius

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

The article examines the historical rise and institutionalization of the agency shop in public sector labor relations and its sudden fall in the Supreme Court’s Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31 decision. The authors demonstrate that the rapid rise of public sector unionism took place during a period when most state laws did not require or even permit the agency shop. We also explore the history of the agency shop in New York including the leading role New York City government played in advocating in Albany for legal changes to permit the agency shop to be negotiated. The article then describes …

Female Entrepreneurs And Equity Crowdfunding In The Us: Receiving Less When Asking For More, Seth C. Oranburg, Mark Geiger

Law Faculty Scholarship

In this paper, we explore the relationship between gender and funding raised through equity crowdfunding. Using data collected from the population of US equity crowdfunding campaigns, we find that campaigns receive significantly less funding when the primary signatory is female. Furthermore, we explore interactions between gender and a campaign's funding target. The results suggest that campaigns raise significantly less funding, as the target amount increases, when the primary signatory is female. These results are the first to suggest a relationship between gender and funding among the population of US equity crowdfunding campaigns. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Jerome Lefkowitz: A Pragmatic Intellect And Major Figure In Taylor Law History, William A. Herbert

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

This article examines the professional career of Jerome Lefkowitz, a central figure in the history of the Taylor Law, New York's public sector collective bargaining statute. Mr. Lefkowitz helped draft the Taylor Law, and served as the first Deputy Chairperson of the New York State Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) from 1967 until 1986, and the agency's fifth Chairperson from 2007 until 2015. PERB is the state agency responsible for administering the provisions of the Taylor Law. Between his two tenures at PERB, Mr. Lefkowitz was Deputy Counsel for the Civil Service Employees Association, Local 1000, AFL-CIO. The article examines …

If Anti-Discrimination Laws Are On The Books, Then Why Do Women Not Sue? A Look Into The Almost Absent Gender Discrimination Litigation In Brazil, Cesar Zucatti Pritsch

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Taylor Law At 50, John F. Wirenius

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Motive Power In Public Sector Collective Bargaining, Martin H. Malin

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

In the private sector, George Taylor referred to the strike as providing the “motive power” in collective bargaining. A major reason behind the enactment of public employee collective bargaining laws is to reduce the interruption of public services from job actions. This was the case with the enactment of New York’s Taylor Law.

This paper, written for a conference commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Taylor Law and published in a special issue of the Hofstra Labor and Employment Law Journal focused on the Taylor Law, examines what, in the absence of a right to strike, provides the motive power …

The Acceleration And Decline Of Discord: Collective Bargaining Impasses In New York State, Anthony Zumbolo

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Jerome Lefkowitz: A Pragmatic Intellect And Major Figure In Taylor Law Historytaylor Law History, William A. Herbert

Publications and Research

This article examines the professional career of Jerome Lefkowitz, a central figure in the history of the Taylor Law, New York's public sector collective bargaining statute. Mr. Lefkowitz helped draft the Taylor Law, and served as the first Deputy Chairperson of the New York State Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) from 1967 until 1986, and the agency's fifth Chairperson from 2007 until 2015. PERB is the state agency responsible for administering the provisions of the Taylor Law. Between his two tenures at PERB, Mr. Lefkowitz was Deputy Counsel for the Civil Service Employees Association, Local 1000, AFL-CIO. The article examines …