Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

Mobilizable Labor Law, Scott L. Cummings, Andrew Elmore

Faculty Scholarship

In the history of new labor localism, city-level living wage ordinances—emerging in the 1990s with Los Angeles leading the way—have generally been understood as a second-best, limited antipoverty device designed to raise wage floors, with only indirect effects on organized labor. Drawing upon original archival materials, this Article offers an alternative reading of the history of the living wage in Los Angeles, showing how it was designed and operationalized as a proactive tool to rebuild union density and reshape city politics. Doing so makes four key contributions. First, the Article theorizes and empirically examines the living wage as a pioneering …

Second Chances Part I - Federal Employment For Workers With Past Arrests Or Convictions, Benjamin David Pyle

Faculty Scholarship

In June 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order 14035 to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the Federal workforce. This order called for an evaluation and expansion of Federal employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated persons.

Before this executive order, in fiscal year (FY) 2020, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) formed a task force to identify vulnerable workers and determine ways to better serve them. The EEOC identified formerly incarcerated persons as one category of vulnerable workers due to the challenges they face in securing employment after their incarceration. In the FY 2017-2021 Strategic Enforcement Plan, the EEOC …

The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework For Prosperity: Promise Or Peril For Labor Governance Through Trade Instruments?, Desiree Leclercq

Scholarly Works

President Biden has launched an Indo-Pacific Framework for Prosperity (“IPEF”) that purports to facilitate high standards, including high labor standards, in the region. That Framework is silent on traditional trade matters such as market access, leading many trade and labor scholars and policymakers to question its utility.

Contrary to that skepticism, this commissioned report argues that the IPEF holds tremendous promise by realigning the bottom-up governance of labor rights in trade with international labor governance. Doing so, this report argues, will strengthen allyships and trade relations in the region. On the other hand, the IPEF could prove equally perilous if …

Strengthening Labor Rights In The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement: A Lost Opportunity?, Desiree Leclercq, Karen Curtis

Scholarly Works

This Chapter was initially drafted during the Obama Administration. The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) had been negotiated and, although it had not yet been ratified in the United States, the Administration and majority of policymakers were in favor of its implementation. Since that time, the United States Administration changed and the United States withdrew from participation in the TPP. While unfortunate, the Administration’s political decision to withdraw from the TPP does not come as a surprise; an examination of the negotiating history of those provisions illuminates a stark political divide within the United States, even prior to the change in …

Rights-Based Sanctions Procedures, Desiree Leclercq

Scholarly Works

Federal agencies are increasingly interpreting international labor rights and imposing a wide array of economic and financial penalties, or “rights-based sanctions,” under various laws and regulations. Congress recently vested the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) with authority to impose targeted rights-based sanctions on foreign factories. USTR has begun administering its new authority with vigor. Policymakers and rights advocates hope that USTR’s enforcement activities will strengthen the protection of workers abroad.

Hidden from view, and thus largely overlooked, are the exclusory procedures that agencies follow when they administer rights-based sanctions. The Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Asset Control …

Beyond Trade Secrecy: Confidentiality Agreements That Act Like Noncompetes, Camilla Hrdy

Akron Law Faculty Publications

There is a substantial literature on noncompete agreements and their adverse impact on employee mobility and innovation. But a far more common restraint in employment contracts has been underexplored: confidentiality agreements, sometimes called nondisclosure agreements (NDAs). A confidentiality agreement is not a blanket prohibition on competition. Rather, it is simply a promise not to use or disclose specific information. Confidentiality agreements encompass trade secrets, as defined by state and federal laws, but confidentiality agreements almost always go beyond trade secrecy, encompassing any information the employer imparted to the employee in confidence. Despite widespread use, confidentiality agreements have received little attention. …

#Metoo & The Courts: The Impact Of Social Movements On Federal Judicial Decisionmaking, Carol T. Li, Matthew E.K. Hall, Veronica Root Martinez

Faculty Scholarship

In late 2017, the #MeToo movement swept through the United States as individuals from all backgrounds and walks of life revealed their experiences with sexual abuse and sexual harassment. After the #MeToo movement, many scholars, advocates, and policymakers posited that the watershed moment would prompt changes in the ways in which sexual harassment cases were handled. This Article examines the impact the #MeToo movement has had on judicial decisionmaking. Our hypothesis is that the #MeToo movement’s increase in public awareness and political attention to experiences of sexual misconduct should lead to more pro-claimant voting in federal courts at the district …