Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

From Models To Mannequins: The Oxymoronic Equation Of International Labor Law Standards In The World Of Fashion, Namrata Bhowmik, Naman Anand

Cleveland State Law Review

Fashion law is an emerging field that addresses the legal issues that arise in the fashion industry. With the rapid growth and globalization of the fashion industry, there is an increasing need for specialized legal guidance in this area. Fashion law encompasses a wide range of legal issues, including intellectual property, contract law, employment law, international trade law, and environmental law.

One of the main drivers behind the need for fashion law is the rise of counterfeiting and intellectual property theft in the fashion industry. With the proliferation of ecommerce and social media, it has become easier than ever for …

Prostitution And Pornography: Reforming A Perspective, Mayce Combs

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

Happiness is a subjective emotion that can quickly be twisted by the depravity of humanity’s sinful nature. Human trafficking deprives an individual’s natural right to life, liberty, and their pursuit to happiness. Of the two divisions of human trafficking, sex trafficking, especially involving children, is the most despicable and most evolved. The United States and further the state of Virginia is a crucial player in combating human trafficking. While there are currently many successful tactics state governments and nonprofit groups are utilizing in order eliminate human trafficking there are further more intense strategies the Virginia State Government should implement. One …

More Than They Bargained For: Ab 257 And An Alternative Approach To Labor Law In California's Fast-Food Industry, Alex Reid

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Whistleblower Protection Under The False Claims Act: Providing Former Employee Inclusion, Nathaniel Kinman

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Liebherr Zambia Limited V. Cleopatra Ng’Andu Mandandi Caz Appeal No. 182/2021, Chanda Chungu

SAIPAR Case Review

No abstract provided.

Forced Labor Found Within The Supply Chains Of The Coffee Industry, Hollis Deuschle

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

I have focused my research on the morality within supply chains that source major coffee companies around the world. As consumers, many of us have no idea where the products that we use everyday truly come from. The purchases we make have the power to feed into the issue of forced labor. The coffee we buy often does. My thesis takes a look into the extensive issue of human trafficking and unjust labor practices on the plantations that provide us with the coffee we sip on each morning. This paper serves to enlighten producers and consumers on this phenomenon, to …

A Third Category For Rideshare Drivers: Untying Employment Statutes From Agency Law, Nathaniel Reyes

Notre Dame Law Review

This Note does not take a stance on the issue of whether rideshare drivers should be classified as “employees” under either employment statutes or the doctrine of respondeat superior. It argues, rather, that if the protection of employment statutes is to be extended to rideshare drivers, this should be done by Congress’s creation of new worker categories in the statutes, rather than by squeezing rideshare drivers into the existing “employee” category. The use of the same binary distinction between employee and independent contractor in both employment statutes and respondeat-superior cases is a practice which should ultimately be abandoned, and recognizing …

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind? Remote Work And Contractual Distancing, Nicola Countouris, Valerio De Stefano

Articles & Book Chapters

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, remote work has acquired quasi-Marmite status. It has become difficult, if not impossible, to approach the issue in a measured and dispassionate way, which is one of the reasons books such as the present one are being published. Remote work is often seen as anathema by some who associate it with laziness, low productivity and the degradation of the social fabric of firms and of their creative and collaborative potential. The notorious views of CEOs such as Tesla and Twitter’s Elon Musk or JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon come to mind, indicative – in the view of …

Introduction To The Future Of Remote Work, Nicola Countouris, Valerio De Stefano, Agnieszka Piasna, Silvia Rainone

Articles & Book Chapters

Debates on the future of work have taken a more fundamental turn in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Early in 2020, when large sections of the workforce were prevented from coming to their usual places of work, remote work became the only way for many to continue to perform their professions. What had been a piecemeal, at times truly sluggish, evolution towards a multilocation approach to work suddenly turned into an abrupt, radical and universal shift. It quickly became clear that the consequences of this shift were far more significant and far-reaching than simply changing the workplace’s address. They …

Out Of Captivity: Preventing Captive Audience Meetings In The Age Of National Labor Relations Board Flip-Flopping, Rebecca Gans

Journal of Law and Policy

Captive audience meetings are one of the most effective tools available to companies fighting union campaigns. This tactic, despite being inherently coercive, is currently legal. In April 2022, the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board released a memorandum stating that the Board intends to consider these mandatory meetings illegal, arguing that the right to refrain embraced by the anti-labor Taft-Hartley Act should be applied here in a pro-labor context. While this ban would be a positive shift in policy for labor rights, due to frequent flip-flopping by the Board, it would almost certainly be undone by the next …

Pro-Choice Plans, Brendan S. Maher

Faculty Scholarship

After Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the United States Constitution may no longer protect abortion, but a surprising federal statute does. That statute is called the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”), and it has long been one of the most powerful preemptive statutes in the entire United States Code. ERISA regulates “employee benefit plans,” which are the vehicle by which approximately 155 million people receive their health insurance. Plans are thus a major private payer for health benefits—and therefore abortions. While many post-Dobbs anti-abortion laws directly bar abortion by making either the receipt or provision of …

(A)Woke Workplaces, Michael Z. Green

Faculty Scholarship

With heightened expectations for a reckoning in response to the broad support for the Black Lives Matter movement after the senseless murder of George Floyd in 2020, employers explored many options to improve racial understanding through discussions with workers. In rejecting any notions of the existence of structural or systemic discrimination, let alone the need to address the consequences of such discrimination, certain groups have begun to oppose BLM by seeking to diminish any social justice actions. One of those key resistance efforts includes labelling in pejorative terms any employers that pursue anti-racism objectives via social justice statements or internal …

Know When To Hold Them, When To Fold Them, And When To Walk Away: Tiktoks Are Professional Sports Franchises' Ace In Collective Bargaining Negotiations, Angelica Varona

Pepperdine Law Review

TikTok, the social media app, has become both a central force in entertainment, creating a slew of influencers and young celebrities, as well as an important tool in all things branding and marketing. Athletes have recognized the value of social media and fan engagement and have taken to becoming content-creators on the platform. The growing presence of professional athletes on the app brings up important issues of copyrightability and ownership of the content they are producing. This Comment considers the nature of athlete content-creation on TikTok as well as the employment scheme and contractual responsibilities that form a part of …

Between Risk Mitigation And Labour Rights Enforcement: Assessing The Transatlantic Race To Govern Ai-Driven Decision-Making Through A Comparative Lens, Valerio De Stefano, Antonio Aloisi

Articles & Book Chapters

In this article, we provide an overview of efforts to regulate the various phases of the artificial intelligence (AI) life cycle. In doing so, we examine whether—and, if so, to what extent—highly fragmented legal frameworks are able to provide safeguards capable of preventing the dangers that stem from AI- and algorithm-driven organisational practices. We critically analyse related developments at the European Union (EU) level, namely the General Data Protection Regulation, the draft AI Regulation, and the proposal for a Directive on improving working conditions in platform work. We also consider bills and regulations proposed or adopted in the United States …

The Recipe For Success: How Local Massachusetts And Rhode Island Restaurants Navigated And Survived Covid Restrictions, Han Lambert

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

The COVID-19 pandemic and the government restrictions adopted during the pandemic have had a detrimental impact on the continued survival and growth of many industries, including the restaurant industry. This study identifies critical regulations relating to COVID-19, implemented in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, as well as on a federal level, which directly impacted the restaurant industry. It is essential that certain economic and social factors are isolated as a means of establishing trends. In the case of this study, a mixed methods approach was used. The number of restaurants open, the amount of restaurant revenue, and the level of consumer …

Employer Tuition Assistance: Current Approaches And The Application Of The Implied Covenant Of Good Faith And Fair Dealing, Jordan T. Krieger

Northwestern University Law Review

American corporations are increasingly expanding tuition reimbursement programs, potentially improving access to higher education for American workers. Yet, despite their increasing availability, only 2% of employees, as a percentage of those interested in pursuing further education, are utilizing these reimbursement programs. For those employees who do make use of these reimbursement programs, they may face unexpected challenges to accessing judicial remedies if a dispute arises.

This Note takes an interdisciplinary approach to first explore employee risks and employer incentives under tuition reimbursement programs. On the employee side, a worker risks premature termination by expressing an interest in tuition reimbursement because …

Regulating Ai At Work: Labour Relations, Automation, And Algorithmic Management, Valerio De Stefano, Virginia Doellgast

Articles & Book Chapters

Recent innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) have been at the core of massive technological changes that are transforming work. AI is now widely used to automate business processes and replace labour-intensive tasks while changing the skill demands for those that remain. AI-based tools are also deployed to invasively monitor worker conduct and to automate HR management processes.

Through the dual lens of comparative labour law and employment relations research, the articles in this special issue of Transfer investigate the role of collective bargaining and government policy in shaping strategies to deploy new digital and AI-based technologies at work. Together, they …

Thirty-Fifth Annual Labor & Employment Law Conference 04-14-2023, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Utah Antidiscrimination Efforts: Shortcomings, Challenges, And The Way Forward, Greta L. Asay

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

Despite being a pro-business state, Utah is not considered employee-friendly; employment discrimination is prevalent, in spite of the state and federal laws in place to protect against it. The state agency that is in place to safeguard employees against unlawful discrimination is the Utah Antidiscrimination and Labor Division (UALD), established by the Utah Antidiscrimination Act (UADA). While the UALD has the potential to be a powerful legal guardrail for employees, it currently is not fulfilling this potential. This paper explores the shortcomings of the UALD and argues that changes should be made to strengthen the authority of the UADA.

House Bill 1316 & Senate Bill 0538: Paid Leave For Adoptive And Foster Parents, Lilia Zylstra, Caroline Shutley, Sydney Reyes, Evelyn Mankowski

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

House Bill 1316 and its companion Senate Bill 0538 propose that employees of the state of Tennessee should be allotted up to 6 weeks paid leave if they become a foster parent to a minor or adopt a minor. To better understand HB 1316 and SB 0538 from a social work perspective, it is vital to examine how the proposed bill promotes the importance of human relationships, the dignity and worth of a person, and social justice—while also recognizing where the bill has room for growth. This study of HB1316 will provide an in-depth analysis of the bill from a …