Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

Disparate Impact Discrimination: The Limits Of Litigation, The Possibilities For Internal Compliance, Melissa Hart

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Possibility Of Avoiding Discrimination: Considering Compliance And Liability, Melissa Hart

Publications

The gender discrimination class action Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., whose certification was recently affirmed in the Ninth Circuit, presents a large-scale challenge to the company's excessive reliance on subjective judgment in employment decision-making. It is one in a growing number of similar suits, all of which are fundamentally attacks on the continued operation of entrenched gender stereotypes in the allocation of workplace opportunities. The breadth of this aim is one of the strengths of these suits, but it also raises a significant question: because this kind of litigation targets a broad social phenomenon, is it reasonably possible to …

Students And Workers And Prisoners - Oh, My! A Cautionary Note About Excessive Institutional Tailoring Of First Amendment Doctrine, Scott A. Moss

Publications

First Amendment free speech doctrine has been called "institutionally oblivious" for ignoring how different institutions present different legal questions. This Article analyzes a little-discussed phenomenon in the growing literature about institutional context in constitutional law. With certain institutions, the situation is not institutional obliviousness but the opposite: extreme institutional tailoring of speech doctrine. The burden of proof ordinarily is on the government to justify speech restrictions, but in three institutions--public schools, workplaces, and prisons--courts allow heavy speech restrictions and defer to government officials. Even if these institutions need to restrict speech unusually often, why do we need different doctrine--institutionally tailored …

Makeup For Success: Why Jespersen V. Harrah's Stifles Diversity By Promoting Stereotypes In Employment, Alison J. Hartwell

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note argues that the Ninth Circuit's decision in Jespersen v. Harrah's Operating Co. undermines efforts to promote diversity by upholding employer grooming policies that reinforce gender stereotypes. It contends that the court failed to adequately address how such policies perpetuate discrimination and limit opportunities for employees who do not conform to traditional gender norms.

Women And Weight-Based Employment Discrimination, Alexandra W. Griffin

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note argues that weight-based employment discrimination disproportionately affects women, contributing significantly to the gender wage gap. It advocates for recognizing this issue as a feminist concern and urges the use of existing legal frameworks and social change to address it.

Days Without Immigrants: Analysis And Implications Of The Treatment Of Immigration Rallies Under The National Labor Relations Act, Michael C. Duff

All Faculty Scholarship

The massive immigration rallies of early 2006 were prompted by anticipated congressional action classifying all unauthorized workers as felons subject to immediate deportation. While a product of federal immigration policy, the rallies implicate federal labor law because they could be characterized as concerted employee action resulting in a series of work stoppages.

Some employees were discharged for missing work to attend the rallies, so an initial question is whether participation in the rallies is protected activity under the National Labor Relations Act. But even assuming the rallies were attended by unauthorized workers, those workers are undeniably employees within the meaning …

Supplementing State Workers' Compensation Laws With Causes Of Action Under State Common Law Regimes For Employee Third-Party Sexual Harassment Suits Against Employers, Anik A. Shah

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Family Responsibilities Discrimination: Don't Get Caught Off Guard, Joan C. Williams, Consuela A. Pinto

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Law Firms As Defendants: Family Responsibilities Discrimination In Legal Workplaces, Joan C. Williams, Stephanie Bornstein, Diana Reddy, Betsy A. Williams

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Politics Of Time In The Legal Profession, Joan C. Williams

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Future Of The International Labour Organization, Laurence R. Helfer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Changing Face Of Collective Representation: The Future Of Collective Bargaining, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Advocating For The Employment Rights Of Victims Of Domestic Violence And Sexual Assault, Deborah A. Widiss, Robin R. Runge

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Architecture Of Inclusion: Interdisciplinary Insights On Pursuing Institutional Citizenship, Susan Sturm

Faculty Scholarship

Structural inequality has captured the attention of academics, policymakers, and activists. This structural reorientation is occurring at a time of judicial retrenchment and political backlash against affirmative action. These developments have placed in sharp relief the mismatch between structural diagnoses and the dominant legal frameworks for addressing inequality. Scholars, policymakers, and activists are faced with the pressing question of what to do now. They share a need for new frameworks and strategies, growing out of a better understanding of institutional and cultural change.

I am honored that the Harvard Journal of Law & Gender has used the publication of The …

International Union, U.A.W. V. Johnson Controls: The History Of Litigation Alliances And Mobilization To Challenge Fetal Protection Policies, Caroline Bettinger-Lopez, Susan P. Sturm

Faculty Scholarship

The Supreme Court's decision in Johnson Controls is the culmination of a long legal campaign by labor, women's rights, and workplace safety advocates to invalidate restrictions on women's employment based on pregnancy. This campaign powerfully demonstrates the use of amicus briefs as opportunities to link the efforts of groups with overlapping agendas and to shape the Supreme Court's understanding of the surrounding empirical, social and political context. But Johnson Controls also provides important lessons about the narrowing effects and fragility of litigation-centered mobilization. The case affirmed an important anti-discrimination principle but ironically left women (and men) with the right to …

The Effect Of Court-Ordered Hiring Quotas On The Composition And Quality Of Police, Justin Mccrary

Faculty Scholarship

Arguably the most aggressive affirmative action program ever implemented in the United States was a series of court-ordered racial hiring quotas imposed on municipal police departments. My best estimate of the effect of court-ordered affirmative action on work-force composition is a 14-percentage-point gain in the fraction African American among newly hired officers. Evidence on police performance is mixed. Despite substantial black-white test score differences on police department entrance examinations, city crime rates appear unaffected by litigation. However, litigation lowers slightly both arrests per crime and the fraction black among serious arrestees.

People As Resources: Recruitment And Reciprocity In The Freedom-Promoting Approach To Property, Jedediah S. Purdy

Faculty Scholarship

Theorists usually explain and evaluate property regimes either through the lens of economics or by conceptions of personhood. This Article argues that the two approaches are intertwined in a way that is usually overlooked. Property law both facilitates the efficient use and allocation of scarce resources and recognizes and protects aspects of personhood. It must do both, because human beings are both resources for one another and the persons whose moral importance the legal system seeks to protect. This Article explores how property law has addressed this paradox in the past and how it might in the future.

Two bodies …

The "Prudent Retiree Rule": What To Do When Retirement Security Is Impossible, Jeffrey N. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

The starting question for public policy analysis in the retirement security area ought to be this: “Is retirement security possible?” My text is drawn from the classic trust case Harvard College v. Amory, decided in 1830, in which the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court announced the prudent investor rule by stating, “Do what you will, the capital is at hazard.” The modern understanding of that text is not that there are no “risk free” assets. After all, the United States government assures the timely payment of principal and interest on Treasury securities backstopped in turn by Treasury’s unlimited call on …

Summary Of Flamingo Hilton V. Gilbert, 122 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 108, Aubree Nielsen

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Appeal from a district court order denying a petition for judicial review in a workers’ compensation matter.

Atlantic Pilotage Authority V Cmsg, Innis Christie

Innis Christie Collection

INTRODUCTION. The "RESOLUTION OF CONTRACT RENEWAL DISPUTES AGREEMENT" of April 24, 2003 between the parties, under which I am proceeding here, provides: The purpose of this agreement is to establish a binding dispute resolution process to be utilized in circumstances where the parties have engaged in collective bargaining for the purpose of entering into a collective agreement but have failed to reach a settlement. Under such circumstances the following process shall be used to conclude all outstanding issues for the renewal of the collective agreement:

Vive La Difference? A Critical Analysis Of The Justification Of Sex-Dependent Workplace Restrictions On Dress And Grooming, Patrick S. Shin

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

How is it possible that sex-specific workplace dress and appearance codes do not constitute sex discrimination? I argue in this article that the general doctrines of employment discrimination law do not themselves provide a principled basis for distinguishing sex-dependent workplace dress codes from other kinds of policies that would clearly count as sex discrimination, and that supplementary strategies that courts have used to carve out dress and grooming codes as an area of separate concern are either inconclusive or question-begging. I then consider whether the courts' seemingly sui generis approach to sex-dependent restrictions on dress and grooming can be justified …

Rosenbaum V. Israel Prison Service Commissioner, Aharon Barak, Dorit Beinisch, Eliezer Rivlin, Ayala Procaccia, Edmond E. Levy, Asher Grunis, Esther Hayut

Translated Opinions

Facts: The respondents introduced a compulsory retirement age of 55 for all of their employees. The petitioners challenged this policy on the grounds that it discriminated between them and civil servants in other parts of the civil service, where the customary retirement age was 65.

Held: Although the law gave the respondents the possibility of retiring its employees at the age of 55, the introduction of a compulsory retirement policy at the lowest age allowed by the law resulted in discrimination in relation to the other parts of the civil service. This consideration had not been taken into account by …

Re Cupe And Canadian Staff Union (Reynolds), Innis Christie

Innis Christie Collection

The Employer posted a position located in Halifax. The Grievor was denied the position because he was not prepared to relocate to Halifax due to family responsibilities. The Union grievance alleged that the Employer breached the Collective Agreement which prohibits discrimination based on marital status and place of residence, and that the Grievor's request to commute should have been accommodated. The Employer believed the position needed to be located in Halifax and that commuting from Newfoundland would not be effective.

Void Agreements, Knocked-Out Terms, And Blue Pencils: Judicial And Legislative Handling Of Unreasonable Terms In Noncompete Agreements, Kenneth R. Swift

ExpressO

This article adresses the divergent approaches currently taken by courts after finding an unreasonable term in an employer-employee noncompete agreement. The article begins by reviewing basic standards used to determine if the terms of a noncompete agreement are reasonable. The article then addresses and analyzes the three approaches used by courts after finding an unreasonable term: finding the agreement void in its entirety, using the "Blue Pencil" doctrine to eliminate unreasonable terms and enforce the remaining terms, and using the court's equitable powers to not only remove unreasonable terms, but to rewrite those terms to make them reasonable. The article …

Data Note: The Relationship Between Supported Employment Status And Minimum Wage For Vocational Rehabilitation Integrated Employment Closures In 2004, Frank A. Smith, Dana Scott Gilmore

Data Note Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

Some VR customers earn less than minimum wage despite being closed successfully, i.e., exiting Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) services into an integrated employment setting. Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act allows employers to pay less than the minimum wage to a person whose disability impairs their capacity to be productive at a particular job. People in supported employment are more likely to have a disability that makes them eligible for Section 14(c) minimum wage exemption. How do wages for customers in supported employment compare to those earned by other customers?

Labor And Employment Law, W. Melvin Haas Iii, William M. Clifton Iii, W. Jonathan Martin Ii

Mercer Law Review

This Article surveys recent developments in state statutory and common law that affect labor and employment relations of Georgia employers. Accordingly, it surveys published decisions from the Georgia Court of Appeals and Georgia Supreme Court from June 1, 2005 to May 31, 2006. This Article also highlights specific revisions to the Official Code of Georgia Annotated.

The Development, Interpretation And Scope Of The Word "Sex" Within Title Vii: With Particular Reference To "Sexual Orientation.", Abbas Kazerounian

ExpressO

This is a paper demonstrating the shortcomings of the current jurisprudence in the U.S. with regards to the readings of Title VII's construction of the word "sex." Currently sexual minorities are not considered within Title VII and therefore sexual minorities are not offered the same protections under this Congressional Act. This paper shows how this is a misreading of the statute and how it should include protection for sexual minorities.

Agenda, Workplace Flexibility 2010, Georgetown University Law Center

Conferences, Panels, and Events

The agenda of the Workers with Disabilities: The Role of Workplace Flexibility event held November 13, 2006.

Flyer, Cornell University

Conferences, Panels, and Events

A flyer advertising the Workers with Disabilities: The Role of Workplace Flexibility event on November 13, 2006 hosted by Cornell University on behalf of Workplace Flexibility 2010.

Families And Work Institute Presentation, Tyler Wigton

Conferences, Panels, and Events

The Families and Work Institute Presentation: The State of the American Workforce & Workplace. Prepared by Tyler Wigton on behalf of Workplace Flexibility 2010.