Category Archives: Employment and Labour Law
Aditi Bagchi, ‘Lowering the Stakes of the Employment Contract’
ABSTRACT Every country has to make hard choices about the distribution of entitlements. But employers control the entitlements that individual Americans enjoy to a far greater extent than those in other rich democracies. In this Essay, I argue that, in the absence of the political consensus necessary to deliver state solutions to political questions, employers […]
Elizabeth Knuppel, ‘“A Mortgage on a Man’s Brain”: The Unconscionability of Overly Broad Intellectual Property Assignment Clauses in Employment Contracts’
ABSTRACT Employees in a wide range of fields, including engineering, science, and design, are required to sign intellectual property (IP) assignment agreements at the start of employment. These agreements assign IP generated by the employee to the employer. IP assignment agreements are often all-encompassing. The agreement may categorically claim all IP that the employee generates […]
Shy and Stenbacka, ‘Noncompete Agreements, Training, and Wage Competition’
ABSTRACT We study the effects of noncompete contracts in an environment where firms invest in training junior workers. After obtaining employer-provided training, trained workers can choose whether to remain loyal to their initial employer or switch to the competing employer. We evaluate the effects of noncompete agreements on wages, employment, investment in training, production, profits, […]
Hugh Collins, Review of The Future of the Employment Contract by Douglas Brodie
“In this thought-provoking book, Douglas Brodie speculates on the possible implications and future evolution of recent judicial developments of the common law of contract for the contract of employment. He mainly relies on the case law of England and Wales and Canada, with some other references to Scotland, Australia and the USA. At the core […]
Dagan and Kricheli‐Katz, ‘Long-Term Contractual Commitments and Our Future Selves’
ABSTRACT This Article focuses on relational contracts whose performance implicates the person of the promisor (as where the promisor is the promisee’s employee). We seek to study how people perceive these types of long-term commitments. Our question, more specifically, is whether their beliefs that their and others’ personalities are relatively malleable (or not) correlate with […]
Kylie Burns, ‘Liability for Workplace Psychiatric Injury and Vicarious Trauma: Kozarov v Victoria’
ABSTRACT Work-related psychiatric injury claims are frequent and costly. Workplace psychosocial hazards increase the risk of prolonged workplace stress, which can lead to physical and psychological injury. This article considers the forthcoming appeal to the High Court of Australia from the Victorian Court of Appeal decision in Victoria v Kozarov, which concerns a psychiatric injury […]
Ann Blankenship-Knox, ‘Penalty or Damages? Are There Limits to Liquidated Damages Provisions in Teacher Employment Contracts’
ABSTRACT This Article examines the validity of liquated damages provisions with regard to teacher contracts and the appropriateness of their use. Part II addresses the law of liquidated damages generally. Part III discusses one Georgia case brought by two teachers against DCSD for enforcement of its liquidated damages provision as an attempt to force the […]
‘The Worker as a Data Subject: Resources for Data Protection Day’
“Since 2006, the Council of Europe has celebrated 28 January as Data Protection Day – known globally as Privacy Day. Data processing now impacts on many spheres of life. One of these is employment: increases in the scale and ease of data processing have led to a sharp increase in employers’ use of algorithmic management […]
‘Chell v Tarmac – The Common Law Unmoved on Vicarious Liability and Direct Duty’
“On 12th January 2022, judgment was handed down in Andrew Chell v Tarmac Cement and Lime Limited [2022] EWCA Civ 7. This was the second appeal from the decision of HHJ Rawlings (‘the judge’) sitting at Stoke-on-Trent County Court on 14 October 2019. He had dismissed the claim by Mr Chell (‘the appellant’) for personal […]
Okonkwo and Adeniran, ‘Who Owns Intellectual Property Created by Employees during Remote Work? Revisiting “Course of Employment”’
ABSTRACT Remote working raises new legal issues that were not previously considered in-depth or on such a global scale after the pandemic. This shift in the place, time, and manner, in which work is carried out poses certain threats to the determination of intellectual property (IP) rights between an employer and an employee. Several employment […]