Employment Issues Legal Resource Materials
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Entrepreneurship Law Editorial Team
Books
Aspatore, Employing International Workers: Leading Lawyers on Navigating Compliance Requirements, Understanding Changing visa restrictions, and Leveraging the Latest Technology (2011).
Abstract (adapted from Amazon):
Employing International Workers provides an authoritative, insider's perspective on the challenges facing U.S. companies with international workforces. Chapters include: Advising the Small Business Client: Needs, Expectations, and Reality. Top lawyers reveal strategies for bringing companies into compliance with new regulations and enforcement guidelines, and examine how the focus of the Department of Labor and Department of Homeland Security has changed under the current administration. From leveraging technology such as E-Verify to understanding key forms and filings, the authors also examine how to protect companies from investigations.Karen E. Ford, Kerry E.
Daniel V. Davidson & Lynn M. Forsythe, The Entrepreneur’s Legal Companion (2011).
Abstract:
Contents include supervising workers to reduce risks and complying with employment laws.
Karen E. Ford, Kerry E. Notestine & Richard N. Hill, Fundamentals of Employment Law (2d ed. 2000).
Abstract (from publisher):
Last published in 1994, this revised and expanded guide provides an overview of current employment law and serves as an invaluable introduction to a rapidly expanding area of litigation. This book is a reference tool, a resource to point you in the right direction when researching employment law issues. Written by attorneys at a major employment law firm, the book offers a clear, concise look at key topics in the employment law field.
Notestine & Richard N. Hill, Fundamentals of Employment Law (2d ed. 2000).
Abstract (from publisher):
Last published in 1994, this revised and expanded guide provides an overview of current employment law and serves as an invaluable introduction to a rapidly expanding area of litigation. This book is a reference tool, a resource to point you in the right direction when researching employment law issues. Written by attorneys at a major employment law firm, the book offers a clear, concise look at key topics in the employment law field.
Mark A. Rothstein, EMPLOYMENT LAW. (3d ed. 2005) (Hornbook).
The Growing Business Handbook: Inspiration and Advice from Successful Entrepreneurs and Fast Growing UK Companies (Adam Jolly, ed., 3d ed. 2011).
Abstract:
Contents include: people and performance; real performance, real rewards; employment policies; taking on an employee; training for growth; find the best candidates in executive searches; improving workplace performance; the leadership process, and partnerships and collaborations.
Articles
Robert W. Bednarzik, The Role of Entrepreneurship in U.S. and European Job Growth, 123 Monthly Lab. Rev. 3 (2000).
Abstract: Entrepreneurial activity, which is higher in the United States than in Europe, is important to job growth, but not as important as job expansions in existing firms.
Marc Cowling & William D. Bygrave, Entrepreneurship, Welfare Provision, and Unemployment: Relationships between Unemployment, Welfare Provisions, and Entrepreneurship in Thirty-Seven Nations Participating in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2002, 28 Comp. Lab. L. & Pol'y J. 617 (2006-2007).
Abstract: This paper studies the relationship between entrepreneurship and unemployment. We focus on Necessity TEA (total entrepreneurial activity for those individuals pushed into entrepreneurship because they have no better alternatives for work). We a priori predict that when unemployment is high, TEA (necessity) will be high as outside alternatives in the labor market diminish. Yet we also predict that this effect will be moderated in nations where unemployment benefits are high. In addition we focus on the composition of the stock of unemployed and how difficult, or easy, it is to start a new business. Both factors have been shown to be important in previous studies. Our findings offer some support for our a priori predictions, but show that the unemployment effect is far more complex than previously believed.
Dorcas R. Gilmore, Expanding Opportunities for Low-Income Youth: Making Space for Youth Entrepreneurship Legal Services, 18 J. Affordable Hous. & Cmty. Dev. L. 321 (2008-2009).
Abstract: Young people in the United States are on the verge of losing the economic advantages gained by their parents. The loss of wealth resulting from the 2008 foreclosure crisis directly impacts intergenerational transfer of wealth. Parental net worth significantly affects the wealth prospects of children. In addition to parental wealth and income losses, youth are facing greater challenges to entering the labor market. The current economic downturn directly affects the employment prospects of low-income workers and youth workers. The employment rate for teens is at its lowest level in sixty years. Low-income youth are hardest hit by the racial wealth gap. Lack of employment disproportionately affects youth of color. For example, as few as 20 percent of black youth are employed at any one time. Racial economic disparities in employment opportunities, income, and wealth place low-income youth of color in the worst position with few employment options and no transfer of intergenerational wealth upon which to build.
Mark A. Glumac, The Employee Free Choice Act: The Effect of Compulsory Interest Arbitration on Entrepreneurs, 5 Entrepreneurial Bus. L.J. 177 (2010).
Abstract
(adapted from the Introduction):
Imagine after all of the hard work and long hours to get a company up and running, your workers decide to unionize and it is time for you to begin negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement. The union decides that they would prefer not to reach an agreement through the traditional bargaining channels, believing instead that the workers would receive better terms if a third party imposed the initial agreement. Therefore, instead of following the typical protocol of using good faith bargaining to reach an agreement, the union stalls for ninety days. At this point, the government sends in an unaccountable third party with little knowledge of your business needs and desires or the needs and desires of the workers. Now both the employer and union are stuck with the terms reached by this arbitrator for a two-year period.
Think about having the most important decisions about pay, hours, and benefits left in the hands of an unaccountable third party and the end-result is a collective bargaining agreement that neither involved party wants! These are the consequences of the impending passage of section (3) of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The Employee Free Choice Act has been gaining steam as it moves through the legislative process, and if the employees and employers of America do not make themselves heard soon, it could be too late. The passage of this act would be the first time that Congress updated and amended the NLRA in over a half century. When looking closely at the interest arbitration provision in section (3) of the EFCA, it becomes clear that this provision takes away the freedom to contract, an underlying principal in the economy. Instead, the statute favors a “more-efficient” system that forces the choice upon the employees and employers. Should we allow an unaccountable third party with limited knowledge of the business and workers' demands to make the ultimate decision? Before deciding, this paper will examine the act itself and the common problems that could arise under it.
Jeffrey M. Hirsch, Employee or Entrepreneur? 68 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 353 (2011).
Abstract (excerpted from article):
An often overlooked aspect of labor and employment law is that such laws apply only where there is an employment relationship. However, this feature is not completely ignored, for any astute employer is well aware that classifying its workers as nonemployees means that it need not comply with many labor and employment laws, or payroll tax requirements. Despite - or perhaps because of -this significant effect, the struggle to distinguish employees from independent contractors and other nonemployees has been lengthy and confused. This confusion is unfortunate because it has provided many employers with the opportunity to manipulate certain aspects of individuals' work for the sole or primary purpose of avoiding legal and tax liability.
Micah Prieb Stoltzfus Jost, Independent Contractors, Employees, and Entrepreneurialism under the National Labor Relations Act: A Worker-By-Worker Approach, 68 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 311 (2011).
Abstract
(adapted from the Introduction): Where legal rights and protections are concerned, the difference between employees and independent contractors in American labor and employment law is monumental … Unfortunately, as a matter of classification, the difference can be elusive. … truckers, construction workers, package deliverers, taxi drivers, freelance artists, engineers, and many other types of workers may exhibit some characteristics associated with employee status, but in other ways resemble independent contractors … Thus the perennial question of how the law should classify workers “in the borderland between what is clearly an employer-employee relationship and what is clearly one of independent entrepreneurial dealing” stubbornly remains unsettled despite decades of debate in the courts, legislatures, and journals.
… Employee/independent contractor status determinations frequently have been the subject of litigation--and less commonly legislation … In recent decades, the number of workers encompassed by the independent contractor label has steadily grown, as businesses have consciously restructured the work relationship away from the employment model to escape social responsibilities and achieve greater flexibility in a globalized economy. In the present economic downturn, this trend has accelerated significantly.
This shift to independent contractor status in many cases consists, at the most basic level, of allowing workers to pay for the opportunity to work rather than paying them wages. The janitor who purchases a franchise to clean part of a building or the taxi driver who leases a cab for twelve- or sixteen-hour stretches looks little different from a full-time employee doing the same work. Yet such arrangements deprive millions of low-skill, low-income workers of important rights and protections that the law grants only to employees. This Note focuses on recent developments and proposals for change regarding one specific statutory right--collective bargaining through a union--which is enjoyed by fewer and fewer American workers.
Seth R. Leech & Emma Greenwood, Keeping America Competitive: A Proposal to Eliminate the Employment-Based Immigrant Visa Quota, 3 Alb. Gov't L. Rev. 322 (2010).
Abstract (from authors):
This Article advocates for the elimination of immigrant visa caps on the number of employment-based (EB) immigrants admitted as lawful permanent residents (green card holders) on an annual basis. These caps deter talented immigrants from migrating to the United States, making American companies less competitive. The proposed solution would allow the labor market and currently existing statutory provisions, rather than an artificial cap, to dictate the number of EB immigrants. This would ensure that U.S. employers are able to attract and keep the talent they need to compete in the global marketplace while protecting the American labor market from being flooded by unnecessary workers.
Online Resources
Business.gov, Employment and Labor Laws,
http://www.business.gov/business-law/employment/
International Entrepreneurship, Employment Issues.
http://www.internationalentrepreneurship.com/employment_issues.asp
United States Department of Labor, eLaws, employment laws assistance for workers and small businesses,
http://www.dol.gov/elaws/
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