Workplace Prof Blog

2023 SEALS Conference

It's that time of year: SEALS is open for submissions for its 2023 conference, which will be held at the Boca Raton Resort  in Boca Raton, Florida from July 23 to July 29 (although our panels will be only a couple of days of that).

At this point, please let me know if a) you're interested in participating in a SEALS panel TBD, or especially b) you have any ideas for a panel or discussion group. As a reminder, we can have any mix we want of either/both traditional panels--which are more typical research--or discussion groups, which involve a larger group engaged in more of a back-and-forth.

Jeff Hirsch

 

DC LERA Upcoming Programs

Many thanks to Tequila Brooks for word on these programs:

 

 

• On Thursday, 8 Sept. 2022 (10-2 ET / 4-6 GMT+2), the Second Annual Virtual Labor Law Forum is co-sponsored by the African Labour Law Society and will focus on Constructing and Deconstructing Racism: Tales of Work and Life in Virginia, the U.S., Europe, and South Africa. The panel will begin with the construction of Jim Crow labor laws in colonial Virginia, move to the adoption of US Civil Rights style strategies by Roma in the EU, continue through workplace race discrimination in post-apartheid modern South Africa, and end with the legacy of U.S. slavery in the modern U.S. workplace. Register here.
• On Wednesday, 14 Sept. 2022 (12-2 pm ET, 6-8 GMT+2), DC LERA will hold a hybrid viewing of a brand new 2022 documentary on the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike. Also co-sponsored by ALLS, the film will be introduced by John Higgins and Mark Pearce, both formerly of the U.S. National Labor Relations Board. Afterward, there will be what we hope will be an international discussion of the film. If you would like to host a simultaneous viewing of the documentary for your labor law class, organization, or university, please email Tequila to coordinate - and all participate in the discussion together. Registration link pending (still working out final details with our other co-sponsor, The Georgetown Law School Worker Rights Institute). 

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New and Emerging Voices in Workplace Law Call for Papers

Daiquiri Steele writes us the e following call for papers:

 

Call for Papers: New and Emerging Voices in Workplace Law Session at 2023 AALS Annual Meeting

The AALS Section on Employment Discrimination Law and AALS Section on Labor Relations and Employment Law is inviting submissions for a joint program, New and Emerging Voices in Workplace Law, at the AALS 2023 Annual Meeting in San Diego, California, January 3-6, 2023.

Overview: This works-in-progress session will give emerging workplace law scholars the opportunity for engagement on a current project with leaders in the field. Each selected scholar will present a work-in-progress and receive comments from an assigned commentator, as well as from an audience of scholars in the field. The session will provide new scholars a supportive environment in which to receive constructive feedback.

Eligibility: Full-time faculty members of AALS member and fee-paid law schools are eligible to submit proposals. This call for papers is targeted to scholars with seven or fewer years of full-time teaching experience. Visitors (not full-time on a different faculty) and fellows are eligible to apply to present at this session.

Submission Format: Please submit an abstract, précis, and/or introduction of the article that is sufficiently developed to allow the reviewers to evaluate the thesis and proposed execution of the project.

Submission Instructions: To be considered, proposals should be submitted electronically to Professor Matt Bodie, The University of Minnesota School of Law, at [email protected] and Professor Daiquiri Steele, The University of Alabama School of Law, at [email protected]. The deadline for submission is Friday, September 2, 2022.

Selection: Presenters will be selected after review by the Chairs of both sections. Selected authors will be notified by September 23, 2022. Presenters will be responsible for paying their annual meeting registration fee. To facilitate valuable feedback at the session, presenters should provide a substantial draft by December 9, 2022.

Questions: Any inquiries about the Call for Papers should be submitted to the Chair for the Section on Employment Discrimination Law, Daiquiri Steele, The University of Alabama School of Law, at [email protected] and/or the Chair for the Section on Labor Relations and Employment Law, Matt Bodie, at [email protected].

 

Jeff Hirsch

Call for Papers: The Effect of Dobbs on Work Law

Nicole Porter, who just joined Chicago-Kent and is the new director of the  Martin H. Malin Institute for Law and the Workplace, writes about a really interesting symposium call for papers:

 

 Symposium Hosted by the Martin H. Malin Institute for Law and the Workplace at Chicago-Kent College of Law

The Effect of Dobbs on Work Law

The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is nothing short of monumental. It will undoubtedly have significant and far-reaching effects on almost all areas of life, including families (and family law), relationships, the criminal justice system, healthcare, travel, and state and federal politics, to name a few. It will also undoubtedly have significantly different effects based on race, ethnicity, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, and disability.

These issues are already being discussed and explored and will continue to be for years (if not decades). This symposium will explore the effect of Dobbs on work law. Potential issues might include: privacy in the workplace, pregnancy discrimination protections, state and federal maternity leave laws, employers’ liability for assisting employees in procuring abortions, implications for religiously affiliated employers, effects on workers with disabilities, racial and class differences regarding how Dobbs affects the workplace, sexual harassment law, implications for marital status discrimination, potential role of unions and other collective action, and undoubtedly many other potential issues not listed here.

The Martin H. Malin Institute for Law and the Workplace (“Institute”) at Chicago-Kent College of Law will sponsor an in-person symposium on Friday, March 3, 2023, at the College of Law. Out-of-town speakers’ reasonable travel expenses to Chicago will be paid for by Chicago-Kent. Papers will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Employee Rights & Employment Policy Journal, which is a peer-edited journal published jointly by the Institute at Chicago-Kent and the Labor Law Group.

If interested in submitting a proposal, please send a proposed title and one- or two-paragraph description to Professor Nicole Buonocore Porter, Director of the Institute, at [email protected]. Proposals can address other issues not mentioned above, as long as they are related to the workplace and/or work law. Please include “Symposium Proposal” on the subject line. Please make sure to also include your institutional affiliation and contact information. Proposals are due by Friday, August 12. I hope to have decisions regarding the acceptance of proposals by September 2. Initial drafts of papers will be due two weeks before the symposium.

Final drafts will be due one month after the in-person event. Questions can be directed to Nicole at the email above.

 

 

Jeff Hirsch

COSELL!

I'm thrilled to announce that the 2022 Colloquium on Scholarship in Employment and Labor Law (COSELL) will at Vanderbilt Law School on October 21-22. More details to come, but definitely save the date for this one.

For any new academics, this has long been my favor gathering to get feedback on labor and employment law related (read broadly) projects. Everyone is incredibly supportive and helpful, and you can present anything from a finished paper to something that's not even half-baked. Plus, there are a ton of people presenting on a wide variety of great topics. 

Huge thanks to Jennifer Shinall and Vanderbilt for hosting this year, especially after hosting last year's virtual conference!

Jeff Hirsch

COSELL!

be I'm thrilled to announce that the 2022 Colloquium on Scholarship in Employment and Labor Law (COSELL) will at Vanderbilt Law School on October 21-22. More details to come, but definitely save the date for this one.

For any new academics, this has long been my favor gathering to get feedback on labor and employment law related (read broadly) projects. Everyone is incredibly supportive and helpful, and you can present anything from a finished paper to something that's not even half-baked. Plus, there are a ton of people presenting on a wide variety of great topics. 

Huge thanks to Jennifer Shinall and Vanderbilt for hosting this year, especially after hosting last year's virtual conference!

Jeff Hirsch

COSELL!

be I'm thrilled to announce that the 2022 Colloquium on Scholarship in Employment and Labor Law (COSELL) will at Vanderbilt Law School on October 21-22. More details to come, but definitely save the date for this one.

For any new academics, this has long been my favor gathering to get feedback on labor and employment law related (read broadly) projects. Everyone is incredibly supportive and helpful, and you can present anything from a finished paper to something that's not even half-baked. Plus, there are a ton of people presenting on a wide variety of great topics. 

Huge thanks to Jennifer Shinall and Vanderbilt for hosting this year, especially after hosting last year's virtual conference!

Jeff Hirsch

Call for Proposals - Fourth Annual Equality Law Scholars’ Forum

Heed the call for proposals for the Fourth Annual Equality Law Scholars' Forum (November 4-5, 2022, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles):

Building on the success of the Equality Law Scholars’ Forum held at UC Berkeley Law in 2017, at UC Davis Law in 2018, and at Boston University Law in 2021, and in the spirit of academic engagement and mentoring in the area of Equality Law, we (Tristin Green, University of San Francisco, visiting Loyola Los Angeles AY 2022-23; Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Boston University; and Leticia Saucedo, UC Davis) announce the Fourth Annual Equality Law Scholars’ Forum to be held in Fall 2022. 

This Scholars’ Forum seeks to provide junior scholars with commentary and critique and to provide scholars at all career stages the opportunity to engage with new scholarly currents and ideas.  We hope to bring together scholars with varied perspectives (e.g., critical race theory, class critical theory, queer theory, feminist legal theory, law and economics, law and society) across fields (e.g., criminal system, education, employment, family, health, immigration, property, tax) and with work relevant to many diverse identities (e.g., age, class, disability, national origin, race, sex, sexuality) to build bridges and to generate new ideas in the area of Equality Law.  

We will select five or six relatively junior scholars (untenured, newly tenured, or prospective professors) in the U.S. to present papers from proposals submitted in response to this Call for Proposals. In so doing, we will select papers that cover a broad range of topics within the area of Equality Law.  Leading senior scholars will provide commentary on each of the featured papers in an intimate and collegial setting.  The Forum will take place all day Friday through lunch on Saturday.  Participants are expected to attend the full Forum.  The Equality Law Scholars’ Forum will pay transportation and accommodation expenses for participants and will host a dinner on Friday evening.  

This year’s Forum will be held on November 4-5, 2022, at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

Junior scholars are invited to submit abstracts of proposed papers, 3-5 pages in length, by June 10, 2022.   

Full drafts of papers must be available for circulation to participants by October 20, 2022. 

Note: We urge submission of proposals for drafts that will still be substantially in progress in October/November 2022 over drafts that will be in late-stage law review edits at that time.

Proposals should be submitted to: Leticia Saucedo, UC Davis School of Law, [email protected].  Electronic submissions via email are preferred.

 

-- Sachin S. Pandya

NYC LERA: NYC’s Worker Protection Laws and its Impact on the Workplace

Bill Herbert (Hunter College, CUNY) tells us about the upcoming NYC LERA program NYC Workplace and Labor Law Update: A Look at NYC’s Worker Protection Laws and its Impact on the Workplace, April 26, 2022, 6 – 7:30 pm ET. Here's a description:

NYC regulatory agencies are charged with administering and/or enforcing municipal workplace laws intended to protect workers across various industries. These laws apply to workers of different socio-economic groups, tackling matters such as pay equity, workplace safety and other worker rights and protection issues. Our panel will address recent enforcement initiatives and its impact on employers, employees and the workplace.

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DC LERA: Gig Economy in Europe

Tequila Brooks tells us of the program Gig Economy in Europe: Examples from Sweden, Netherlands and Germany on Tuesday, April 26th, 2022, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm ET. Topics to be discussed include working conditions in the gig economy in Europe; policy proposals put forward by the European Commission; protection of gig workers under Swedish, Dutch, and German labor law; and employee participation in algorithmic systems in the context of work.

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Another Great DC LERA Program

Thanks once again to Tequila Brooks for sending word of Enforcing Global Labor Rights in 2022: M-POWER and Other Tools (Virtual Meeting). The program will be Wednesday, February 23, 2022 12 pm ET. Speaking will be Thea Lee, Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs of the U.S. Department of Labor, and the moderator will be DC LERA Board Member Jeff Wheeler. It's free; register here.

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DC LERA Program: Navigating the Future of Work in the Age of Pandemics and Social Movements

Thanks again to Tequila Brooks for sending word about this program: David Jacobs, DC LERA Board President, will be speaking with Dr. Melissa Fisher of the NYU Institute for Public Knowledge - online only, complementary. January 26, 2022, noon eastern, registration here.

In February, the guest speaker will be Thea Lee, Deputy Under Secretary for International Labor Affairs, also online only.

DC LERA is particularly encouraging law students to attend.

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2021 Colloquium on Scholarship in Employment and Labor Law (COSELL)

Below is helpful info about the ever-popular COSELL this fall from Jennifer Shinall. Bottom line is that an in-person option is up in the air, but at a minimum, we'll have a remote option, whether exclusively remote or hybrid. So get in those submissions. Also, much thanks goes to Jennifer for taking on the never-ending hosting duties!

Jeff Hirsch

I am writing to provide an update on the format of the 2021 Colloquium on Scholarship in Employment and Labor Law (COSELL), which will be hosted this year by Vanderbilt Law School on October 15-16, 2021.As I'm sure you are aware, the COVID-19 situation has changed rather dramatically since Vanderbilt committed to hosting the event in-person back in June. Vanderbilt has returned to a mask mandate, even for vaccinated individuals. Our campus regulations regarding in-person gatherings are becoming stricter each week, as the local public health situation here continues to decline.

All that being said, here is where we currently stand: at this time, Vanderbilt University will still technically permit us to host COSELL in-person. The university, of course, could change its mind at any moment. An additional complication is that the university finance department is currently prohibiting us from signing any vendor contracts, out of concern that the university will still be on the hook financially even if the conference will not be able to go forward in-person. That complication prohibits us from booking a conference dinner venue, hiring a caterer, and reserving hotel blocks at this time.

Despite the present uncertainty regarding conference format (virtual or in-person), we are moving forward with the paper submission process since October is only two months away. As in years past, if you would like to present at COSELL, we ask that you submit an extended abstract or a paper (early-stage works and works-in-progress are highly encouraged!). The paper submission site is now live, available here: https://law.vanderbilt.edu/phd/annual-conference/index.php

 

As part of the paper/abstract submission process, we are polling everyone regarding their preference for attending the conference in-person. We would like to gauge the level of interest in trying to salvage an in-person event if the public health situation improves. Although many of you expressed interest in an in-person conference earlier this summer, we realize that preferences may have changed, given the reinstatement of travel bans at some universities, as well as the rise in COVID vaccine breakthrough cases. Expressing a preference for virtual attendance will have no effect on paper selection for COSELL; we simply want to take everyone's temperature on traveling to an in-person event.

 

The abstract/paper submission deadline for COSELL 2021 is Monday, September 13. Again, the link to submit your abstract/paper is here.

 

In sum--worst case scenario, COSELL will be held virtually (as it was last year) on October 15-16, 2021. Best case scenario, COSELL will be held in a hybrid in-person/zoom format at Vanderbilt. Still, even best case scenario will require a great deal of flexibility from participants who wish to attend in-person since we will be unable to reserve hotel blocks or announce a schedule until the last minute. (For those of you who want to go ahead and reserve a hotel room around campus just in case in-person happens, the Aertson, the Loews, the Graduate, and the Hutton are all good options, but please make sure the room can be cancelled in the event we move to an all virtual conference!).

 

Once again, please submit your abstracts/papers for COSELL 2021 by Monday, September 13. The results of the submission poll on in-person attendance will allow us to make a final decision regarding conference format by mid-September (at the very latest).

 

Thank you all for being patient and flexible. I look forward to seeing you all--virtually, at the very least--on October 15-16, 2021.

 

 

Forum: Labor Rights of Non-Standard and Excluded Workers

Tequila Brooks sends word that DC LERA will be hosting its first annual Labor Law Forum on June 16, 2021 11:00 a.m. Eastern. The forum features Mark Gaston Pearce of the Georgetown Law School Workers’ Rights Institute, Tonia Novitz of the University of Bristol Centre for Law at Work (UK), and Matt Ginsburg of the AFL-CIO for a discussion of legal issues affecting non-standard and gig economy workers under U.S. and English law, recent union organizing campaigns in the U.S. platform economy, and using university procurement to improve workplace safety and equity. The Forum is free but registration is required.

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DC LERA Webinar: Worker Cooperatives in Spain

Tequila Brooks writes to tell us about another great DC LERA webinar: Worker Cooperatives in Spain. It will be Wednesday, May 19, 2021, 11AM - 12 pm Eastern Time. The webinar will be in the form of a conversation between Oskar Goitia, Chairman of the Mondragon Corporation, and Lucia Ortiz Sanz of the Embassy of Spain to the United States, about worker cooperatives in Spain and around the world. It's free; register here.

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DC LERA: Collaboration between Immigrant Worker Centers and Unions

Thanks once again to Tequila Brooks for sending word of DC LERA's program Labor’s New Kids on the Block: Collaboration between Immigrant Worker Centers and Unions. It will be online, April 21, 2021, 11:00-noon. Here's a brief description:

Join DC LERA for a conversation between Dr. Ben Kreider, Policy Consultant, and Discussant Carlos Jimenez of the AFL-CIO about immigrant worker centers, new forms of organizing, and collaboration between immigrant worker centers and unions. Dr. Kreider will be presenting his dissertation research on the subject.

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NYC LERA: Just Cause Discipline for Fast Food Workers in NYC

Bill Herbert writes about the upcoming virtual NYC LERA event "Just Cause Discipline for Fast Food Workers in NYC." It will be from 6:00-7:30 on March 23 and you can find the registration and other info here. The description and panel of speakers look great (and CLE credits are available depsite there being no charge--although please consider becomeing a member):

The New York City Council recently passed a bill (Int. 1415-A) that limits when a fast food employer can discharge a fast food worker, only permitting terminations for “just cause” or a  “bona fide economic reason.” The new law takes effect on July 4, 2021. It adds new sections to the previously passed Fair Workweek Law (the FWW), utilizing and building upon the enforcement mechanisms provided to New York City’s Department of Workplace and Consumer Protection (DCWP). The new law allows discharged fast food workers to take their case to arbitration or to bring a lawsuit. What do workers, unions, and employers need to know?

Speakers

Brad Lander, New York City Councilmember, who represents the 39th District in Brooklyn and serves as City Council Deputy Leader for Policy
Paul Sonn, State Policy Program Director, National Employment Law Project
Lisa M. Griffith, Partner, Littler Mendelson, P.C.

Moderator

William A. Herbert, Distinguished Lecturer, Hunter College and LERA NYC Chapter Secretary

 

Jeff Hirsch

DC LERA: Bargaining Rights in the Public Sector

Many thanks to Tequila Brooks for sending us word of the DC LERA program on Wednesday, March 17, 2021. noon EST, It’s 2021 – Way Past Time for Collective Bargaining Rights in the Public Sector. The speaker is Elissa McBride, Secretary-Treasurer of AFSCME, who will discuss The Public Sector Freedom to Negotiate Act, Legislative priorities for public service workers, and AFSCME campaigns in the DC metro area. It's free; register here. rb

Webinar: International Trade and Labour Law: the USMCA

Thanks to Vincenzo Pietrogiovanni (Lund University - Aarhus University) for alerting us to the webinar "International Trade and Labour Law: the USMCA", organised by the Labour Law Community - LLC together with the International Society for Labour and Social Security Law - ISLSSL, which will be held on Zoom on Thursday 14 January 2021 h 6.00 pm CET. To participate, follow this link starting at the time of the webinar. Here's a description:

The USMCA, an agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada that has replaced the NAFTA and the side agreement on labour (NAALC), represents an important advance on the path of the virtuous link between regulation of international trade and promotion of social rights. The new agreement, in fact, contains chapter no. 23 entirely dedicated to work: here the Parties go beyond the generic list of "principles" contained in the previous NAALC and expressly refer to the principles and conventions of the ILO, thus aiming for regulatory harmonisation between States through international labour law.

The opportunity to deepen the knowledge of this important Treaty with Janice Bellace and Lance Compa, distinguished scholars of labour law, appointed by the US government as members of the panel that has the task of sanctioning the non-compliant parties, is also a chance to reflect on the European economic and social model, as well as on the resumption of international trade relations in the Biden era, with the aim of relaunching the instrument of the social clause at a macro-regional but also at global multilateral level.

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EREPJ Call for Papers!

Great call for papers opportunity with EREJP!  From Michael Green...

CALL FOR PROPOSED PAPERS: Final papers due February 1, 2021, Employee Rights & Employment Policy Journal, Annual Symposium: “What Matters for Black Workers after 2020?” As we approach the end of a tumultuous year for all of us and, in particular for black workers, we are seeking papers for publication in Issue 1, Volume 25 of the Employee Rights & Employment Policy Journal on the topic of “What Matters for Black Workers after 2020?”

In 2020, we saw the senseless killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many others that led to national and international protests in support of Black Lives Matter (BLM). Unions and many black workers joined in further BLM solidarity during the Strike for Black Lives Matter held on July 20, 2020. Black athletes have engaged in several prominent acts supporting BLM, including kneeling by Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players, the longstanding activism efforts by members of the WNBA, and the NBA wildcat strike in response to the Jacob Blake shooting. Likewise, COVID-19 disproportionately affected black individuals, many of whom were considered essential workers, in substantial and different ways than other groups.

Divisive political actions created many hostilities for black workers in 2020, including the issuance of an executive order banning discussions of implicit bias and critical race theory in training programs of federal contractors as well as the increasing prevalence of white supremacist and militias groups who openly carried weapons threatening many black protesters and poll workers. Unfortunately, 2020 resulted also in the loss of many black civil rights leaders including John Lewis, Elijah Cummings, C.T. Vivian, and Joseph Lowery. After the 2020 election, there remains considerable uncertainty about legislative, executive, and judicial actions in response to the political appointments and agendas of the last four years that may create significant benefits or burdens for black workers. Black persons also continue to have lower salaries and levels of employment with greater opportunities to be arrested or imprisoned.

With these topics and any others that may affect black workers in mind, we ask all the phenomenal, experienced, developing, and budding scholars who have an intellectual interest in matters that affect black workers as we end 2020 to consider this call for proposals to submit a paper. If you are working on or contemplating writing about the above issues or any other key issues that black workers will have to face after 2020, please consider submitting your work for publication. We would like to have initial proposals by December 11, 2020 and final drafts, by Monday, February 1, 2021. This Symposium on “What Matters for Black Workers after 2020?” is sponsored by The Labor Law Group, a non-profit trust of labor and employment scholars who collaborate on various educational projects. Labor Law Group member Michael Green (Texas A&M) will serve as Symposium editor working with journal co-editors and Labor Law Group members, Martin Malin (Chicago Kent) and Noah Zatz (UCLA).

Submission Format and Instructions. We know this is a short window. But to know what the prospects for consideration are, we ask you by Friday, December 11, 2020 to please submit a Microsoft Word document as an abstract, précis, and/or introduction of the article that is developed enough to allow the editors to evaluate the thesis and proposed execution of the project as a proposal to Michael Z. Green, at [email protected] and Andrea Hudson at [email protected] Selected authors of proposals will be notified by December 21, 2020, if not sooner, of the interest in potential publication. Completed papers will be expected by the Monday, February 1, 2021 deadline. Any inquiries about the Call for Papers should be submitted to Michael Z. Green at [email protected]

Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal is a faculty-edited, peer-reviewed journal co- published by The Labor Law Group and IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law’s Institute for Law and the Workplace. Authors uniformly praise the Journal’s editing process. The Journal has a student staff who provide cite checking and Bluebooking, but their work is reviewed by the faculty editors, and authors do not deal directly with students.