Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

Intentional Job Discrimination-New Tools For Our Oldest Problem, Alfred W. Blumrosen, Ruth G. Blumrosen

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The roots of employment discrimination lie deep in our history. By the 18th century, race slavery was the underpinning of wealth in the southern colonies. Black slaves were considered property - subhumans who had no rights in themselves or their offspring. In 1765, the British imposed "stamp taxes" on the colonies; the colonies resisted. In 1766, Parliament claimed the power to govern the colonies in all matters, but by 1770 it had repealed almost all the taxes that offended the colonists. "Business as usual" returned to the relations between the colonies and Britain.

Employment Law: Desert Palace, Inc. V. Costa: Returning To Title Vii's Core Principles By Eliminating The Direct Evidence Requirement In Mixed-Motive Cases, Daniel P. Johnson

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Employment Law: Congress Giveth And The Supreme Court Taketh Away: Title Vii's Prohibition Of Religious Discrimination In The Workplace, Huma T. Yunus

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pretext In Employment Discrimination Litigation: Mandatory Instructions For Permissible Inferences?, William J. Vollmer

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Comments On Pretext In Employment Discrimination Litigation: Mandatory Instructions For Permissible Inferences?, Carolyn L. Wheeler

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Imperative Of Instructing On Pretext: A Comment On William J. Volmer's Pretext In Employment Discrimination Litigation. Mandatory Instructions For Permissible Inferences?, C. Elizabeth Belmont

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Workplace Mediation: The First-Phase, Private Caucus In Individual Discrimination Disputes, Emily M. Calhoun

Publications

No abstract provided.

Labor And Employment Law In Two Transitional Decades, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Articles

Labor law became labor and employment law during the past several decades. The connotation of "labor law" is the regulation of union-management relations and that was the focus from the 1930s through the 1950s. In turn, voluntary collective bargaining was supposed to be the method best suited for setting the terms and conditions of employment for the nation's work force. Since the 1960s, however, the trend has been toward more governmental intervention to ensure nondiscrimination, safety and health, pensions and other fringe benefits, and so on. "Employment law" is now the term for the direct federal or state regulation of …

Empirical Studies: How Do Discrimination Cases Fare In Court? Proceedings Of The 2003 Annual Meeting Of The Association Of American Law Schools, Section On Employment Discrimination, Monique C. Lillard

Articles

No abstract provided.

8th Biennial Employment Law Institute, Office Of Continuing Legal Education At The University Of Kentucky College Of Law

Continuing Legal Education Materials

Materials from the 8th Biennial Employment Law Institute held by UK/CLE in June 2002.

Parental-Status Employment Discrimination: A Wrong In Need Of A Right?, Peggie R. Smith

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article evaluates strategies to challenge employment discrimination based on parental status. Specifically, it examines proposals put forth by some commentators to establish parental status as a protected class. While such a suggestion is attractive, the Article argues that it ultimately offers few practical advantages and remains wedded to a limited conception of equality, requiring only that employment decisions not reflect differences based on parenthood. Consequently, such a strategy would satisfy anti-discrimination legislation so long as both men and women with parental obligations are equally ill-treated. The Article concludes that a shift in perspective from gender to parental status will …

Studying Labor Law And Human Resources In Rhode Island, Stewart J. Schwab

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Our task today is to celebrate, inaugurate, and educate. Lawyers demanded the education part of the talk because they love double counting whenever possible. The lawyers in our audience get Continuing Legal Education credits for attending. That's just one illustration of how to think like a lawyer--kill as many birds with as few stones as possible.

Lawyers are often accused of talking in an arcane language that no one else can understand. Labor-relations people are sometimes thought to be either pie-in-the-sky optimists or Marxist-inspired anarchists. Human-relations professionals are sometimes said to be hypocrites giving a fake smile to employees while …

(Un)Welcome Conduct And The Sexually Hostile Environment, Henry L. Chambers, Jr.

Law Faculty Publications

As courts refine the theory underlying sexual harassment and sex discrimination, the unwelcomeness inquiry may become irrelevant to determining whether gender-based conduct is sexually harassing. In addition, the one possible remaining purpose that the unwelcomeness requirement may serve-providing notice to a putative harasser or its employer-is now served by an affirmative defense applicable to many sexual harassment claims. Consequently, its role should be reexamined. This Article does that. Part I of the Article describes a hypothetical situation that provides a context in which to consider unwelcomeness. Part II provides a brief overview of the evolving sexual harassment jurisprudence. Part III …

Envisioning A Future For Age And Disability Discrimination Claims, Alison Barnes

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article considers the reasons for reinterpretations of age and disability and examines the fundamental reasons for changes in the implementation of both the ADA and ADEA. Part I presents the basic structure and relevant requirements of the two statutes and comments on the reasons their legislative purposes are not often seen as overlapping. Part II discusses the recent Supreme Court decisions that have undermined the purposes and implementation of both the ADA and ADEA and chilled causes of action based on the ADA and ADEA. Part III projects the current problems with anti-discrimination causes into the future, when older …

Employment Law In A Changing Workplace, Katherine V.W. Stone

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Attachment Gap: Employment Discrimination Law, Women's Cultural Caregiving, And The Limits Of Economic And Liberal Legal Theory, Laura T. Kessler

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Title VII has prohibited employment discrimination on the basis of pregnancy since 1978, when Congress passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act ("PDA"), but it does not require employers to recognize women's caregiving obligations beyond the immediate, physical events of pregnancy and childbirth. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 ("FMLA ") also does little more than provide job security to some relatively privileged women in the case of childbirth. Neither of these statutes, which constitute the bulk of the United States' maternity and parental leave policies, provides for the most common employment leave needs of caregivers, who by all measures …

Whose Motive Matters? Discrimination In Multi-Actor Employment Decision Making, Rebecca H. White, Linda Hamilton Krieger

Scholarly Works

The search for a discriminatory motive in disparate treatment cases often is envisioned as an attempt to determine whether a supervisor, despite his denials, consciously acted out of bias, animus or on the basis of “inaccurate and stigmatizing stereotypes” in making an employment decision. Framing the search for discriminatory motive is this way, however, cannot prove fully effective in eliminating discrimination, as individuals may be unaware of their own biases or the influences those biases have had on their own decision making.

The reality of decision making in the employment area, moreover, is that multiple individuals are often involved in …

Employment Discrimination By Religious Institutions: Limiting The Sanctuary Of The Constitutional Ministerial Exception To Religion-Based Employment Decisions, Laura L. Coon

Vanderbilt Law Review

A religious organization enters a contract with a builder to construct a new facility and breaches the contract; a student at a private, religiously-affiliated school slips on a patch of ice and is seriously injured because of the school maintenance crew's negligence. The builder and the student are aggrieved by the actions of the respective religious institutions. Consequently, they seek to re- solve their disputes through the judicial system, as would any other individual with a potential legal claim. Although the adjudicative process would involve church and state, the First Amendment Religion Clauses would not likely be implicated, because the …

The New Psychological Contract: Implications Of The Changing Workplace For Labor And Employment Law, Katherine V.W. Stone

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In this article, Professor Stone describes the profound changes that are occurring in the employment relationship in the United States. Firms are dismantling their internal labor markets and abandoning their implicit promises of orderly promotion and long-term job security. No longer is employment centered on a single, primary employer. Instead, employees operate in a boundaryless workplace in which they expect to move frequently between firms, and between divisions within firms, throughout their working lives. At the same time, employers and employees have a new understanding of their mutual obligations, a new psychological contract, in which expectations of job security and …

To Allow To Sue, Or Not To Allow To Sue: Zimmerman V. Oregon Department Of Justice Decides Title Ii Of The Americans With Disabilities Act Does Not Apply To Employment Discrimination, Cabrelle Abel

Seattle University Law Review

The article analyzes Title II and explains why, in the interests of judicial economy, the Zimmerman court correctly held that Title II does not apply to employment discrimination. First, the article discusses the particular wording of the ADA, specifically comparing the language of Title I to the language of Title II. Next, the article briefly considers the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, because Title II should be interpreted consistently with that Act. Then, using the analysis announced by the Supreme Court in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. the article examines the Title II regulations promulgated by the Department of …

Who Pays Arbitration Fees? The Unanswered Question In Circuit City Stores, Inc. V. Adams, Melissa G. Lamm

Campbell Law Review

As courts and administrative agencies are becoming busier and litigation more complex, many today see alternative dispute resolution, specifically arbitration, as a way to promptly and efficiently resolve disputes. Arbitration, especially in light of the recent United States Supreme Court decision in Circuit City Stores, Inc. v. Adams, is becoming more common in employer-employee, business-customer, and business- business relationships. The Court held in Circuit City that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) applies to nearly all interstate employment relationships. The challenge before the courts now is determining who should bear the burden of paying for the arbitration of disputes.

Can Employers Put Genetic Information To Good Use, Kathleen C. Engel

Journal of Law and Health

In my talk today I am going to try to answer the question: Can employers put genetic information to good use? Preparing this talk was a challenge because it required me to switch sides of the table. Having represented plaintiffs in employment discrimination cases for ten years, my inclination is to focus on the ways that employers can use genetic information to the detriment of their workers. I chose to talk about the value of genetic information from the employers' perspective because I wanted to force myself to engage in a disciplined study of the issues, rather than simply don …

Genetic Testing And Employment Litigation, Harry Zanville

Journal of Law and Health

I have only a couple of comments to make that relate to litigation hurdles and how to achieve this balance, and the first thing I want to talk about, following the wonderful presentation is, in fact, we probably don't in some ways even need a new cause of action.

An Ounce Of Prevention Is A Poor Substitute For A Pound Of Cure: Confronting The Developing Jurisprudence Of Education And Prevention In Employment Discrimination Law, Susan Bisom-Rapp

Faculty Scholarship

This article challenges a widely shared conviction that has had a tremendous impact on employer practices and, most recently, on employment discrimination jurisprudence. More specifically, the piece interrogates the belief that employee education can prevent, or at least greatly curb, invidious employment discrimination prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and other civil rights statutes. This premise, broadly held and rarely questioned, has spawned a multi-billion dollar sexual harassment and diversity training industry staffed by consultants, attorneys, and human resource professionals, who offer programs aimed at litigation prevention. Yet, there is absolutely no empirical support for the premise …

Multiracial Matrix: The Role Of Race Ideology In The Enforcement Of Antidiscrimination Laws, A United States-Latin America Comparison, Tanya K. Hernandez

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the role of race ideology in the enforcement of antidiscrimination laws. Professor Hernandez demonstrates the ways in which the U.S. race ideology is slowly starting to resemble the race ideology of much of Latin America. The evolving U.S. race ideology is a multiracial matrix made up of four precepts: (1) racial mixture and diverse racial demography will resolve racial problems; (2) fluid racial classification schemes are an indicator of racial progress and the colorblind abolition of racial classifications an indicator of absolute racial harmony; (3) racism is solely a phenomenon of aberrant racist individuals; and (4) focusing …

Conflating Scope Of Right With Standard Of Review: The Supreme Court's Strict Scrutiny Of Congressional Efforts To Enforce The Fourteenth Amendment, Melissa Hart

Publications

No abstract provided.

Second Generation Employment Discrimination: A Structural Approach, Susan Sturm

Faculty Scholarship

The judiciary's traditional rule-based approach has been successful in reducing overt discrimination against women and people of color. It has been less effective in addressing more subtle and complex forms of workplace inequity. These second generation forms of bias result from patterns of interaction, informal norms, networking, mentoring, and evaluation. Drawing on the potential of recent Supreme Court decisions, Professor Sturm proposes a structural regulatory solution to this problem of second generation employment discrimination. Her approach links the efforts of courts, workplaces, employees, lawyers, and mediating organizations to construct a regime that encourages employers to engage in effective problem solving. …

Employers Beware: The Ninth Circuit's Rejection Of The "Direct Threat To Self" Disability Discrimination Defense In Echazabal V. Chevron, Sheehan Sullivan

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will address whether the Ninth Circuit should have upheld the "direct threat to self" defense in Echazabal v. Chevron. First, the Note will introduce the "direct threat to self" debate in the context of the ADA's language, the EEOC-outlined regulatory provisions, and the case law surrounding the direct threat question. Specifically, the Note will address (1) the relationship between the ADA and the EEOC, (2) the compatiblity of the ADA with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and (3) the case law applying the EEOC regulations, the ADA provisions, and the Rehabilitation Act provisions. Next, the Note will …

The Changing Role Of Labor Arbitration (Symposium: New Rules For A New Game: Regulating Employment Relationships In The 21st Century), Theodore J. St. Antoine

Articles

A quarter century ago, in a provocative and prophetic article, David E. Feller lamented the imminent close of what he described as labor arbitration's "golden age." I have expressed reservations about that characterization, insofar as it suggested an impending shrinkage in the stature of arbitration. But Professor Feller was right on target in one important respect. Labor arbitration was going to change dramatically from the autonomous institution in the relatively self-contained world of union-management relations which it had been from the end of World War II into the 1970s. When the subject matter was largely confined to union-employer agreements, arbitration …

Gilmer In The Collective Bargaining Context, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Articles

Can a privately negotiated arbitration agreement deprive employees of the statutory right to sue in court on claims of discrimination in employment because of race, sex, religion, age, disability, and similar grounds prohibited by federal law? Two leading U.S. Supreme Court decisions, decided almost two decades apart, reached substantially different answers to this questionand arguably stood logic on its head in the process. In the earlier case of Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co., involving arbitration under a collective bargaining agreement, the Court held an adverse award did not preclude a subsequent federal court action by the black grievant alleging racial discrimination. …