Category Archives: Employment and Labour Law
Arnow-Richman, Davidoff Solomon and Hicks, ‘Anticipating Harassment: Metoo and the Changing Norms of Executive Contracts’
ABSTRACT The MeToo movement exposed the pervasiveness of high-level, sex-based misconduct at major public companies. It also revealed a workplace culture seemingly permissive of such behavior. Companies responded slowly and imposed few consequences, often allowing culpable executives to depart with lucrative exit packages. Why did companies reward rather than penalize perpetrators? And what will it […]
‘New Judgment: Uber BV and Others v Aslam and Others [2021] UKSC 5′
“This appeal concerns the employment status of private hire vehicle drivers who provide their services through the Uber smartphone application. The Appellants are members of a group of companies providing private hire vehicle booking services in the UK and internationally. Journeys are booked through the Appellants’ smartphone app, which connects passengers to drivers. The Respondents […]
Barry, Campello, Graham and Ma, ‘Corporate Flexibility in a Time of Crisis’
ABSTRACT We use timely surveys of US CFOs to study how flexibility shapes companies’ responses to the onset of the COVID-19 crisis and drives longer-term changes in the corporate sector. The three dimensions of corporate flexibility that we study perform distinct functions, yet complement each other. We find that workplace flexibility, namely the ability for […]
Charles Sullivan, ‘Noncompetes in a Downsizing World’
ABSTRACT As the nation confronts multiple federal and state attacks on employee noncompetition agreements (NCAs), one issue has remained relatively obscure: may an employer that terminates a worker for reasons not related to performance nevertheless enforce an NCA? A scattering of cases mostly holds no, and the recent Restatement of Employment Law’s agreement with those […]
Lemley and Lobel, ‘Banning Noncompete Agreements to Create Competitive Job Markets’
ABSTRACT Competitive job markets are critical to the success of the national economy, spurring innovation while boosting wages and labor equality. The moment is ripe for the new administration to foster competitive job markets by banning noncompete agreements (noncompetes). New empirical evidence shows that noncompetes have harmful effects on job mobility, wages, competition, entrepreneurship, and […]
Despoina Georgiou, ‘“Business Risk-Assumption” as a Criterion for the Determination of EU Employment Status: A Critical Evaluation’
ABSTRACT In the European legal order, the criterion of ‘business risk-assumption’ is increasingly being used by the ECJ as an element that would point to the existence of an independent working relationship. To what type of risks is the Court referring to? What are the normative underpinnings of this criterion and is it still effective […]
Kurt Pärli, ‘Impacts of Digitalisation on Employment Relationships and the Need for more Democracy at Work’
ABSTRACT The world of labour is in transformation due to automation, digitalisation and platform work. Digitalisation is changing the classic relationship between employer and employee; this also affects workers’ participation rights within the company. New forms of work demand very high self-organisation and active commitment on the part of employees to solving process problems and […]
Rory Van Loo, ‘The Revival of Respondeat Superior and Expansion of Gatekeeper Liability’
ABSTRACT In an era of servants and masters, respondeat superior emerged to hold the powerful accountable for the acts of those they control. That doctrine’s significance has only grown in an economy driven by large corporations that rely heavily on legions of subsidiaries and independent contractors, such as banks deploying independent call centers, oil companies […]
Vaheesan and Buck, ‘Non-Competes and Other Contracts of Dispossession’
ABSTRACT Employers have used non-compete clauses to deprive tens of millions of workers of the freedom to change jobs or start their own businesses. In occupations ranging from home health aide to journalist and sandwich shop worker, employers have used this legal power to their great benefit. Non-compete clauses reduce worker mobility, help employers keep […]
David Lewis, ‘Stigma and Whistleblowing: Should Punitive Damages be Available in Retaliation Cases?’
ABSTRACT This article uses a range of disciplinary perspectives to examine what is meant by stigma and explains that it is a relational concept. It argues that there has been a shift from attributing social stigma to whistleblowing, to regarding whistleblowing as a form of prosocial behaviour, that is, something which contributes to the well-being […]