Synopsis
This book is intended for courses on the individual rights of workers in the employment relationship, independent of courses on the law governing collective bargaining or employment discrimination. It can be used for one three-credit survey course on employment law, or for two related courses on employment law and employee benefits, each of two credits. The book covers the full range of employment law subjects from the nature of the employment relationship, the definition of "employee", pre-employment screening, individual employment contracts, the employment at-will doctrine, exceptions to the employment at–will doctrine, obligations of employees, monitoring and control of employees, the regulation of pay and hours of work (FLSA), workers’ compensation, unemployment compensation, the regulation of occupational safety and health (OSHA), and the regulation of employee benefits (ERISA).
The book has been substantially updated from the last issue. The chapter on who is an employee and who is an employer has been updated to include discussions of the most recent federal rules on these subjects under the FLSA and the NLRA. The chapters on hiring and monitoring employees now include extended discussions of the problems posed by information technology including artificial intelligence. The chapter on discharge now includes updates on the state regulation of employer accommodation of medical marijuana, protection of political speech, the CROWN Act, and employer monitoring of social media. The chapter also now includes an expanded discussion of the due process rights of public employees in discipline and discharge. The chapter on the regulation of wages and hours now includes an expanded discussion of state minimum wage laws in excess of the federal standard, the new federal rule on the EAP exception from overtime coverage, and family and medical leave requirements.
Where appropriate, the book presents interdisciplinary discussions of employment law problems from historical, economic and industrial relations perspectives. All of these interdisciplinary discussions have been updated to reflect the most recent academic work. Efforts were also made to include relevant empirical evidence on the common practices of employers and important employment law questions. The book now includes discussions of the problems of employer monopsony power, wage coordination, no poach agreements, and economic evidence on the deleterious impact of noncompete agreements on wages. The book also now includes discussion of the possible application of the antitrust laws to such problems.
A recurring theme in the book, especially in the introductory chapter and the chapters on individual employment contracts and privacy, is the historical tension in the United States between legal ideologies of “free labor,” i.e., of the law as supporting a notion of labor that is "free" to contract for any employer imposed restraints or of the law as supporting a notion of labor that is "free" even from some unreasonable employer demands, with an eye towards equality and fairness. Another recurring theme in the book is when and how is it desirable to intervene in the labor market to address market failures to promote greater income equality, workplace health and safety, unemployment insurance, healthcare insurance, retirement income security and respect for human dignity.
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