Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

In Search Of The Reasonable Woman: Anti-Discrimination Rhetoric In The United States, Francis J. Mootz Iii

Scholarly Works

This article emerged from my participation in a Symposium addressing global perspectives on the topic, "Anti-Discrimination Discourse and Practices," sponsored by The Jean Monnet Chair of European Law at Cagliari University, Sardinia. The article examines the rhetorical development of the "reasonable woman" standard of hostile work environment sexual harassment under Title VII. I argue that the rhetorical framing of the standard has unnecessarily limited its impact, perhaps to the point of undermining its potential to radically revise our understanding of gender discrimination. I suggest how the rhetorical power of the standard might be recovered.

Ricci V. Destefano: A Masculinities Theory Analysis, Ann C. Mcginley

Scholarly Works

This Article applies masculinity theory to explore the aspects Ricci v. Destefano and its political reverberations. Empirical evidence showed that virtually all written tests have a disparate impact on minorities, that a neighboring city had reached less discriminatory results using a different weighting system, and that other fire departments used assessment centers to judge firefighters' qualifications for promotions. While the black male and all female firefighters were made invisible by the case and the testimony, the fact that Ricci's and Vargas' testimony lionized a particularly traditional form of heterosexual masculinity was also invisible. While the command presence required of a …

The Uses And Misuses Of Statistical Proof In Age Discrimination Claims, Thomas Tinkham

Faculty Scholarship

When it comes to statistics, age discrimination is different than other forms of discrimination. In most discrimination cases we can take the protected population and make appropriate adjustments for necessary characteristics like education and compare the results to the other employee groups.

With age discrimination this method does not work. It doesn’t work because the normal patterns of aging and promotion or wage increase distort the statistical result. Employees typically are promoted more quickly and receive the highest percentage wage increases in early years. However, they generally retain those benefits for life. Employees reach a high point in their careers …

Fallout From 14 Penn Plaza V. Pyett: Fractured Arbitration Systems In The Unionized Workplace, Ann C. Hodges

Law Faculty Publications

First, the article will review the history of arbitration of statutory employment claims, including the Pyett decision. Second, the article will look at the history and causes of legalism in arbitration. Then the article will consider the probable responses of employers and unions to Pyett. While predictions are necessarily speculative, it is likely that some unionized employers will seek to require employees to arbitrate statutory claims, perhaps in higher percentages than in the nonunion workplace. While unions may, and perhaps should, resist, many future collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) may contain such provisions. The article then discusses the alternative dispute resolution …

Honest-Services Fraud: A (Vague) Threat To Millions Of Blissfully Unaware (And Non-Culpable) American Workers, Julie R. O'Sullivan

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The author believes that statute 18 U.S.C. § 1346 is unconstitutionally vague, at least as applied to cases in which employees of private entities are prosecuted for depriving their employers of a right to their honest services (so-called “private cases”). Objections to vagueness rest on due process. “Vagueness may invalidate a criminal law for either of two independent reasons. First, it may fail to provide the kind of notice that will enable ordinary people to understand what conduct it prohibits; second, it may authorize and even encourage arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.” The Supreme Court’s vagueness precedents do not provide much …

Port Development Labor Issues, Alastair Deans

Sea Grant Law Fellow Publications

No abstract provided.

Fractured Membership: Deconstructing Territoriality To Secure Rights And Remedies For The Undocumented Worker, D. Carolina Nuñez

Faculty Scholarship

Relied upon but unwelcome, among us but uninvited, undocumented workers in the United States – now numbering over 8 million – labor on the border of inclusion and exclusion, between a status-based conception of membership and a territorial approach to membership. Although mere presence in the U.S. secures undocumented workers many of the same labor protections afforded to authorized workers, undocumented status often forecloses certain remedies otherwise available for employer breaches of those protections. Many commentators have criticized this effective status-based denial of rights to undocumented workers as inimical to the goals underlying labor and immigration law. While this Article …

Still On The Border: The Fractured Membership Rights Of The Undocumented Worker, D. Carolina Nuñez

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Facilitating Wage Theft: How Court Use Procedural Rules To Undermine Substantive Rights Of Low-Wage Workers, Nantiya Ruan

Scholarly Works

In race and sex discrimination class actions, if a defendant employer makes a Rule 68 offer of judgment to the named plaintiffs, courts routinely refuse to dismiss the class claims. In stark contrast, in collective actions for failure to pay lawful wages, if a defendant employer makes a Rule 68 offer of judgment, courts will often dismiss the entire collective action as having been mooted by the named plaintiffs’ recovery. The outcome of such a dichotomy is that low-wage workers are increasingly unable to challenge unlawful wage violations successfully because the aggregation mechanism is too easily defeated. Without an ability …

Pemakaian Peraturan-Peraturan Kumpulan Wang Simpanan Pekerja (Kwsp) 2001 Dalam Tuntutan Dan Agihan Harta Tanpa Penamaan : Pelaksanaannya Di Kwsp Kuala Lumpur., Siti Fatimah Azzura Mohd Yusof

Student Works (2010-2019)

This research generally examines the concept of property without nomination and its administration in Malaysia. In order to examine the administration of the property, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) institution was selected. The main discussion of this research focuses on the EPF claim application and its distribution aspects. Both of the aspects are stated in the EPF Regulations 2001. Furthermore this research is concentrated on the administrative issues of the claim and distribution of the property. This qualitative research had used methods of library research, documentation, sampling (Purposive Sampling) and interviewing in the collection of the data. In analyzing the …

Business-Like: The Supreme Court's 2009-2010 Labor And Employment Decisions, Melissa Hart

Publications

The 2009-10 Term at the Supreme Court was a relatively quiet one for labor and employment law. While the Justices were in the news for decisions on corporate political donations and the Second Amendment, the Court’s work-related docket grabbed no headlines. In fact, though, the Court considered 7 work law cases this Term, in areas ranging from standards for arbitration agreements to employee privacy rights in new technology to time limitations for filing Title VII disparate impact claims. This article discusses the Court’s labor and employment cases for the Term. While they may not have made much news, several of …

"No Man Can Be Worth $1,000,000 A Year": The Fight Over Executive Compensation In 1930s America, Harwell Wells

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Missouri's Public Defender Crisis: Shouldering The Burden Alone, Sean O'Brien

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Supreme Court Tips Against Individual Rights-Again, Roger B. Jacobs

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The 45th Anniversary Of Title Vii: Where We Are, Where We've Been, And Where We May Go, Sarah Crabtree, Daphnie Stock

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Labor Law: Labor Initiatives In The New Administration, Holly B. Fechner, Hon. William J. Kilberg, James A. Paretti, William Samuel, Timothy M. Tymkovich

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Labor Law During Hard Times: Challenges On The 75th Anniversary Of The National Labor Relations Act, Wilma B. Liebman

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Broadening Low-Wage Workers' Access To Justice: Guaranteeing Unpaid Wages In Targeted Industries, Hina B. Shah

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

There was a significant period in early American history where unlimited liability coexisted with limited liability and certain industries or creditors received more favorable treatment. Limited liability was originally conceived as an extraordinary privilege granted to a select few. In the Twentieth Century, it has been transformed into the default rule for all corporations and entities. The prevalence of limited liability in modern times has undermined fundamental labor protections guaranteeing workers’ their wages. The tension between the limited liability rule and labor rights is fundamentally about who the law favors. Limited liability is risk allocation – shifting to the creditors …

Solomon And Strikes: Labor Activity, The Contract Doctrine Of Impossibility Or Impracticability Of Performance, And Federal Labor Policy, Daniel P. O'Gorman

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Nlrb's Deferral Policy Under Fire: The D.C. Circuit's Criticism And The Future Of The Deferral Policy, Celeste J. Mattina

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Does Cercla Preempt New York State Law Claims For Cost Recovery And Contribution?, Kristi Weiner

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Three Transnational Discourses Of Labor Law In Domestic Reforms, Alvaro Santos

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Current labor law debates, in the United States and elsewhere, reflect entrenched discursive positions that make potential reform seem impossible. This Article identifies and examines the three most influential positions, which it names the “social,” “the neoliberal,” and the “rights-based” approach. It shows that these discursive positions are truly transnational in character. In contrast with conventional wisdom, which accepts the incompatibility of these positions, this Article creates a conceptual framework that productively combines elements from each to enrich the debates over labor law reform and to foster institutional imagination. Applying this framework, the Article examines the collective bargaining systems of …

The Global Dimensions Of Virtual Work, Miriam A. Cherry

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Recently, unusual “factories” have appeared in Third World countries; these factories do not manufacture goods, but instead feature computer workers, typing and clicking away, playing video games, collecting coins and swords, and fighting monsters. Known as “gold farmers,” these workers are paid to harvest virtual treasures for online gamers in the developed world. First World gamers want to advance quickly within their online role-paying games of choice and, tired of the repetitive tasks necessary to build a high-level character, would prefer to pay others to do the work. As a result, gold farming operations have appeared in many countries …

Revitalizing Union Democracy: Labor Law, Bureaucracy, And Workplace Association, Matthew Dimick

Journal Articles

Do core doctrines of labor-relations law obstruct the internal democratic governance of labor unions in the United States? Union democracy is likely an essential precondition for the broader strategic and organizational changes unions must undertake in order to recruit new union members — the labor movement’s cardinal priority. Yet according to widely accepted wisdom, the weakness of democracy within labor unions is the unavoidable outcome of an “iron law of oligarchy” that operates in all such membership-based organizations. This Article challenges this conventional thinking and argues that the triumph of oligarchy over democracy in US labor unions is not inevitable, …

Labor And The Bank: Investigating The Politics Of The World Bank's Employing Workers' Index, Suzan Kang

Publications and Research

For many years, trade unions have pressured international financial organizations such as the World Bank to better incorporate protections for workers. A recent development in this contestation was the World Bank’s 2009 announcement regarding its controversial “Employing Workers Index” in its widely circulated Doing Business report. Trade unions had argued that the index, which promoted flexible labor market policies, did not respect the international norm of worker protections, and urged the World Bank to change the index. As a result, the Doing Business Group pledged to reform the Employing Workers Index and to create a new index on protecting workers. …

Race, Sex And Genes At Work: Uncovering The Lessons Of Norman-Bloodsaw, Elizabeth Pendo

Articles

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 20081 ("GINA") is the first federal, uniform protection against the use of genetic information in both the workplace and health insurance. Signed into law on May 21, 2008, GINA prohibits an employer or health insurer from acquiring or using an individual's genetic information, with some exceptions.

One of the goals of GINA is to eradicate actual, or perceived, discrimination based on genetic information in the workplace and in health insurance. Although the threat of genetic discrimination is often discussed in universal terms - as something that could happen to any of us -the use …

From Corporate Express To Fedex Home Delivery: A New Hurdle For Employees Seeking The Protections Of The National Labor Relations Act In The D.C. Circuit, Jamison F. Grella

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

In Defense Of Transnational Domestic Labor Regulation, David J. Doorey

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Transnational domestic labor regulation (TDLR) is unilateral regulation introduced by a government to influence labor practices in foreign jurisdictions. TDLR has the potential to empower foreign workers and influence the balance of power in foreign industrial relations systems in ways that might lead to improved labor conditions. Particularly interesting is the potential for TDLR to harness or steer private labor regulation--the many non-state sources of labor practice governance already active in shaping labor conditions within global supply chains. However, whether governments should try to influence foreign labor practices at all is a controversial question. This Article explores the arguments both …

The Reverse-Morals Clause: The Unique Way To Save Talent's Reputation And Money In A New Era Of Corporate Crimes And Scandals, Porcher L. Taylor Iii, Fernando M. Pinguelo, Timothy D. Cedrone

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Square Peg In A Round Hole: Government Contractor Battlefield Tort Liability And The Political Question Doctrine, Chris Jenks

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Recent assertions of the political question doctrine by battlefield contractor defendants in tort litigation have brought new life to the doctrine while raising new questions. The lawsuits stem from incidents in both Iraq and Afghanistan and include plaintiffs ranging from local nationals suing contract interrogators and interpreters, to contract employees suing another contractor following insurgent attacks, to U.S. service members suing contractors after vehicle and airplane crashes. The lawsuits involve tort claims, which on their face do not conjure up images of a constitutional power struggle, but in at least fifteen cases thus far contractor defendants have asserted the political …