Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

An Emerging Liability: Managing Flsa Exposure From Internship Programs In The Private Sector, Chris J. Perniciaro

Mercer Law Review

According to the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the Department of Labor (DOL), unpaid internships in private for-profit businesses are illegal under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA or the Act) except for very narrow circumstances. Consistent with the WHD's position, civil litigation against employers providing unpaid internships has significantly increased via the private right of action contained in the statute. Over twenty lawsuits have been filed by unpaid interns alleging violations of federal and state minimum wage laws. A major force behind these new lawsuits is Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures Inc., a June 2013 decision from …

Systematic Ict Surveillance By Employers: Are Your Personal Activities Private?, Arlene J. Nicholas

Faculty and Staff - Articles & Papers

This paper reviews the various methods of information and communications technology (ICT) that is used by employers to peer into the work lives and, in some cases, private lives of employees. Some of the most common methods – such as computer and Internet monitoring, video surveillance, and global positioning systems (GPS) – have resulted in employee disciplines that have been challenged in courts. This paper provides background information on United States (U.S.) laws and court cases which, in this age of easily accessible information, mostly support the employer. Assessments regarding regulations and policies, which will need to be continually updated …

Bottom-Up Workplace Law Enforcement, Charlotte S. Alexander, Arthi Prasad

Indiana Law Journal

This Article presents an original analysis of newly available data from a landmark survey of 4387 low-wage, front-line workers in the three largest U.S. cities. We analyze data on worker claims, retaliation, and legal knowledge to investigate what we call “bottom-up” workplace law enforcement, or the reliance of many labor and employment statutes on workers themselves to enforce their rights. We conclude that bottom-up workplace law enforcement may fail to protect the workers who are most vulnerable to workplace rights violations, as they often lack the legal knowledge and incentives to complain that are prerequisites for enforcement activity.

Restoring Our Children's Future: Ending Disparate School Discipline Through Restorative Justice Practices, Kaeanna Wood

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This note opens the discussion on disparate school discipline with a case harboring egregious facts, then goes on to explore the history of zero-tolerance policies as the primary method of school discipline, federal civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination based on race in school discipline, and the rise of restorative practices as a means of school discipline. In conclusion, this note argues that in implementing restorative justice practices as an alternative dispute resolution method, schools can end a pattern of disproportionately disciplining African American and Hispanic students and create an environment that fosters success for all children.

Employment Arbitration At The Crossroads: An Assessment And Call For Action, Stephen L. Hayford, Jamie Darin Prenkert, Anjanette H. Raymond

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Arbitration agreements must be on equal footing with all types of contracts. This stark reality demands that the various stakeholders in the arbitration community converge in the interest of designing and institutionalizing arbitration mechanics and processes that, as a start, exceed the minimum requirements to avoid arguments of substantive unconscionability and, more broadly, provide the fair, just, and accountable alternative dispute resolution system the FAA and the U.S. Supreme Court have indicated it can be. This paper seeks to guide this next stage of the debate by first reviewing the doctrinal developments over the past thirty years that led to …

"Horton And The Who": Determining Who Is Affected By The Emerging Statutory Battle Between The Faa And Federal Labor Law, James R. Montgomery

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In the early 20th century, social changes brought about a system designed to protect employees. As part of the American system of labor laws, workers are given certain rights to proceed collectively, to "band together," and to proceed as a unit. Labor laws were first enacted in the United States during a period of Supreme Court jurisprudence that granted a broad array of powers to corporations, in the form of "liberty of contract." Justice Holmes dissented in Lochner v. New York, and planted a seed in his opinion that would later go on to support the idea behind federal labor …

Willingness To Accept Equals Willingness To Pay For Labor Market Estimates Of The Value Of Statistical Life, W. Kip Viscusi, Thomas J. Kniesner, James P. Ziliak

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Our research clarifies the conceptual linkages among willingness to pay for additional safety, willingness to accept less safety, and the value of a statistical life (VSL). We present econometric estimates using panel data to analyze the VSL levels associated with job changes that may affect the worker’s exposure to fatal injury risks. Our baseline VSL estimates are $7.7 million and $8.3 million (Y$2001). There is no statistically significant divergence between willingness-to-accept VSL estimates associated with wage increases for greater risks and willingness-to-pay VSL estimates as reflected in wage changes for decreases in risk. Our focal result contrasts with the literature …

Operation Arbitration: Privatizing Medical Malpractice Claims, Myriam E. Gilles

Articles

Binding arbitration is generally less available in tort suits than in contract suits because most tort plaintiffs do not have a pre-dispute contract with the defendant, and are unlikely to consent to arbitration after the occurrence of an unforeseen injury. But the Federal Arbitration Act applies to all "contract[s] evincing a transaction involving commerce, " including contracts for healthcare and medical services. Given the broad trend towards arbitration in nearly every other business-to-consumer industry, coupled with some rollbacks in tort reform measures that have traditionally favored medical professionals in the judicial system, it is very possible that we may witness …

Breastfeeding And A New Type Of Employment Law, Marcy Karin, Robin Runge

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Preserving The Sanctity Of Collective Bargaining: The Compensability Of Travel Time Following Flsa Section 203(O) Donning And Doffing Activity, Nicholas Hart

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Same Sex Marriage In A Post-Perry And Windsor America, Kathryn L. Moore, Allison I. Connelly, Ross T. Ewing

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

These materials accompanied a presentation at the 2014 Kentucky Bar Association Annual Convention entitled Same Sex Marriage in a Post-Perry and Windsor America. The focus of this presentation was on: the legal landscape following major LGBTQ civil rights cases; how these cases would impact families in Kentucky; and any employment or retirement issues.

Federalism And Business Decisions In The October 2005 Term, Carter G. Phillips

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Other Civil Rights Decisions In The October 2005 Term: Title Vii, Idea, And Section 1981, Eileen Kaufman

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Other Civil Rights Decisions In The October 2005 Term: Title Vii, Idea, And Section 1981, Leon Friedman

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

"Without Good Cause": The Case For A Standard-Based Approach To Determining Worker Qualification For Unemployment Benefits, Emily Toler

Washington Law Review

Under Washington’s Employment Security Act, workers who voluntarily quit their jobs are qualified to receive unemployment benefits only if they establish “good cause” for leaving work. For forty years, the agency that administers the statute and the courts had substantial discretion to find good cause under the statute’s flexible, standard-based approach. However, beginning in 1977, the legislature began to restrict the scope of that discretion by moving toward a rule-based approach. This trend reached its apex in 2009, when the legislature stripped the agency and the courts of all discretion and limited good cause to eleven reasons enumerated in the …

The "Moral Hazards" Of Title Vii's Religious Accomodation Doctrine, Stephen Gee

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Freedom of religion in the workplace has recently become a hot topic with regards to whether U.S. or state laws (mainly contraceptive care and treatment of same-sex, married employees’ spouses) must accommodate certain employer’s religious beliefs or else violate the employer’s constitutional right. However, before this recent employer-centric topic came to light, the main focus was on employees and to what extent employers must accommodate an employee’s religion via Title VII. Most, if not all, academic literature has argued an employer’s duty to accommodate employee’s religion is too weak under Title VII and should thus be increased to the significant …

Qualified Immunity For “Private” § 1983 Defendants After Filarsky V. Delia, Andrew W. Weis

Georgia State University Law Review

In 2012, the Supreme Court addressed private party qualified immunity in the case of Filarsky v. Delia. There, the Court found that both the historical and policy bases for immunity under § 1983 supported extending qualified immunity to outside counsel retained by a municipality. The Court noted that full-time government employees can always seek qualified immunity, so not extending it to individuals employed on some other basis would create “significant line-drawing problems . . . [which could] deprive state actors of the ability to ‘reasonably anticipate when their conduct may give rise to liability . . . .’”

This …

"Without Good Cause": The Case For A Standard-Based Approach To Determining Worker Qualification For Unemployment Benefits, Emily Toler

Washington Law Review

Under Washington’s Employment Security Act, workers who voluntarily quit their jobs are qualified to receive unemployment benefits only if they establish “good cause” for leaving work. For forty years, the agency that administers the statute and the courts had substantial discretion to find good cause under the statute’s flexible, standard-based approach. However, beginning in 1977, the legislature began to restrict the scope of that discretion by moving toward a rule-based approach. This trend reached its apex in 2009, when the legislature stripped the agency and the courts of all discretion and limited good cause to eleven reasons enumerated in the …

Title Vii At Fifty Years: A Symposium, Ann C. Mcginley

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Trouble With Torgerson: The Latest Effort To Summarily Adjudicate Employment Discrimination Cases, Theresa M. Beiner

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.