The Worker Thread

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O Really
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Re: The Worker Thread

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Logically, although we all know the law isn't always logical, it's very obvious. Protection against discrimination on account of religion, for example, has long been ruled to include any variation of religion or no religion. "Sex", which isn't really sex at all but should have been "gender", should also include any variation not specifically excluded from the law. And there are no specific exclusions, probably because they never dreamed they'd need any. :lol:

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Re: The Worker Thread

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O Really wrote:
Thu Apr 19, 2018 8:47 am
Logically, although we all know the law isn't always logical, it's very obvious. Protection against discrimination on account of religion, for example, has long been ruled to include any variation of religion or no religion. "Sex", which isn't really sex at all but should have been "gender", should also include any variation not specifically excluded from the law. And there are no specific exclusions, probably because they never dreamed they'd need any. :lol:
Is there an 80-something drag queen lawyer somewhere saying, "Hah, I knew our plan would succeed!"? :D
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Re: The Worker Thread

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Re: The Worker Thread

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Re: The Worker Thread

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Shirking responsibility, with government complicity:
States with joint-employer shield laws are protecting wealthy corporate franchisers at the expense of franchisees and workers

As of 2018, at least 18 states have enacted joint-employer shield laws specifically designed to protect one very wealthy special interest group: corporate franchisers. Corporate franchisers are the big companies—like McDonalds, or Marriott, or Carl’s Junior—that use the franchise business model, in which oftentimes small-business owners (the franchisees) pay for the rights to use the company’s trademarks, services, and products. These state joint-employer laws are intended to shield the corporate owners of the franchise from bearing joint responsibility with their franchisees for complying with minimum wage, overtime, health and safety, and other laws applicable to the employees who work at the franchisee’s stores. In simple terms, the joint-employer shield laws preclude applying the joint-employer legal doctrine to hold franchisers jointly responsible for violations of employee rights....

The 18 states with laws carving out franchisers from joint-employer responsibility as of January 2018 are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

States such as Missouri and Virginia are considering joint-employer laws that would leave corporate franchisers such as Subway, Domino’s, and Hardees unaccountable to state enforcement agencies for unlawful employment conditions that so many Missouri and Virginian workers might face....
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Re: The Worker Thread

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Most "wage theft", worker safety, discrimination claims arise under federal, not state law. And the state's exclusion of franchisers from joint employment would not apply to federal claims, such as violations of FLSA or OSHA. A worse problem is in Congress, where they're also trying to help out the franchisers.
https://www.fisherphillips.com/resource ... ant-hurdle

And complicating it all is that not all franchises work the same way. Looking at each one objectively, some franchisers exert a lot more control over the franchisee's employees than others. And then you have different types of franchisees, too. When you see all these little Waffle Houses at the freeway exits, you've got one company that owns almost all of them in FL, GA, SC, NC and VA. A McD's may be owned by one guy, or may be one of many owned by the same group. If they would stick to the criteria of what has historically constituted "joint employment" and didn't try to come up with a corporate-friendly one-size-fits-none plan, it would be a lot better.

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Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
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Re: The Worker Thread

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Petition to Congress:

Expand overtime pay and restore overtime protections to the millions of workers hurt by the Trump administration and conservative business lawsuits. Support the Restoring Overtime Pay Act.
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Re: The Worker Thread

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Page 18:
rstrong wrote:
Fri Aug 25, 2017 2:41 pm
Vrede too wrote:
Fri Aug 25, 2017 4:08 am
Kinda snarky, I merely posted a relevant article. Remember, our ONLY disagreement on this issue is that you want to take away recourse from real victims that aren't rich.
I want to give them recourse. Under the current system Adam Carolla had a very strong case and $500,000 just fight a patent troll. And most experts agreed it still wasn't nearly enough. We now know definitively that he was in the right, but $500,000 just wasn't enough.

"Loser pays" wont entirely fix that, but it's a big step in the right direction.
Vrede too wrote:
Fri Aug 25, 2017 3:44 pm
What you are calling "just wasn't enough" is really rich folks making a calculated guess as to what will cost them more. "Loser pays" means that poor victims never sue at all and that perps are given that much more freedom to create victims. You should be campaigning for strengthening the penalties for truly frivolous suits, instead, and for tighter regulation in the first place. Anyhow, all I did was post a relevant article.
EFF Wins Final Victory Over Podcasting Patent

:clap:

"This newsletter is printed from 100% recycled electrons." :D
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Re: The Worker Thread

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Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
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Re: The Worker Thread

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Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
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Re: The Worker Thread

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Why is wage growth so slow? It’s not because low-wage jobs are being added disproportionately

... What these figures show is that the composition of new jobs is not what is keeping wage growth so sluggish right now—instead, we are simply seeing sluggish wage growth within a wide variety of job-types. Why? In a previous blog post, we also showed that it is not lack of worker skills that is keeping wage growth low. What is most likely happening is that worker leverage and bargaining power have been so decimated by policy choices—policy choices that have, for example, led to the erosion of union coverage and labor standards like the minimum wage—that for tight labor markets to spark upward wage pressure the economy requires a much lower unemployment rate now than it did in the past. The solution is clear: we need the Federal Reserve to allow the unemployment rate to continue to drop, and we need policies to shift bargaining power back to workers.
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Re: The Worker Thread

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Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
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Re: The Worker Thread

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Missouri 'right-to-work' law rejected by popular vote

... Missouri unions were energized about the referendum, which labor members and supporters triggered last year by turning in more than 300,000 signatures to put the issue on the ballot. The law was suspended until voters could have their say, nearly a year later....

The mandatory ban on union dues, generally supported by Republicans and opposed by Democrats, was passed in early 2017 by lawmakers in Jefferson City, where the GOP holds sway....
YES 443,406, 32.88%
NO 905,166, 67.12%
http://enr.sos.mo.gov/PickaRace.aspx
Sweet.
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Re: The Worker Thread

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Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
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Re: The Worker Thread

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Vrede too wrote:
Sun Oct 01, 2017 10:56 am
How much repeat work do arbitrators that are paid by employers yet tend to rule against employers get?

Here's EPI's report backing up its graphic's claims:

The growing use of mandatory arbitration
Access to the courts is now barred for more than 60 million American workers
O Really wrote:
Sun Oct 01, 2017 11:30 am
Good article. To be clear - I don't favor mandatory arbitration. I do favor arbitration, as well as mediation, as alternate dispute resolution paths that can have positive results for both sides. My real problem with it, however, from the perspective of one who used to be an AAA-certified arbitrator, is that the arbitrator's decision doesn't really have to be based on the law. Usually it is - but an arbitrator can say, if s/he finds it applicable, "yes, the employer was in violation, but due to circumstances we'll overlook that and decide the violation wasn't a big deal and find in the employer's favor anyway." Or "arbitrarily" find in the employee's favor, such as happens frequently in disputes over unpaid earned vacation time at termination. Some states don't require it to be paid. Nevertheless, arbitrators almost always find that it should be and rule for the ex-employee.
Vrede too wrote:
Sun Oct 01, 2017 11:47 am
I definitely defer to your expertise. From the little I know my issue is with having to agree to mandatory arbitration if you want to work, not with arbitration in general. If not forced, I'm sure that there are times when it's to the worker's advantage or at least not disadvantage to choose it.
The Supreme Court Just Helped Chipotle Boot 2,814 Workers From A Wage Theft Lawsuit

Nearly 3,000 current and former Chipotle employees just became some of the first low-wage workers to get stiffed by the Supreme Court’s landmark decision on arbitration.

The court ruled 5-4 in May that it’s legal for employers to require workers to sign class-action waivers in order to get a job. By agreeing to these clauses, workers give up their right to sue their employer as a group over wage theft or workplace discrimination, and they instead have to take their claims to arbitration as individuals.

After the decision was issued, HuffPost reported that it jeopardized a huge lawsuit brought by Chipotle workers against the famous burrito chain. Of the roughly 10,000 plaintiffs who claimed Chipotle didn’t pay them their full wages, 2,814 had signed a class- and collective-action waiver the company first implemented in 2014 to reduce its legal liabilities.

Now those workers have officially been kicked out of the lawsuit. In an order issued last week, Senior U.S. District Judge John Kane said that the Supreme Court ruling, known as Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, left him no choice but to give those folks the boot.

“I am thus compelled to find that the class and collective action waiver in Chipotle’s Arbitration Agreement does not violate [labor law] or render the Agreement unenforceable,” Kane wrote.

That means the remaining 7,000 or so plaintiffs can still pursue their back wages in federal court, while those who’d signed the class-action waiver would have to go to arbitration individually....

A low-wage worker who believes she’s owed a few hundred bucks probably wouldn’t be able to find a lawyer willing to take on such a low-stakes arbitration case, at least not on contingency. And if she were paying the lawyer by the hour, she would quickly amass more in legal fees than her claim is worth.

“Expenses entailed in mounting individual claims will often far outweigh potential recoveries,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in her dissent....
:( :ateeth: 5-4.
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Re: The Worker Thread

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Become a co-signer of the Workers’ Freedom to Negotiate Act

To: All Members of Congress

For nearly 40 years, workers’ wages have been flat, correlating with a steady decline in unionization across the country. In order to raise the wages of all working people―union and non-union alike―we call on Congress to pass the Workers’ Freedom to Negotiate Act which strengthens workers’ right to collectively bargain and updates the National Labor Relations Act, returning power to working people, not corporate interests.
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Re: The Worker Thread

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This Labor Day, let's stop subsidizing low-paying billionaires

Image

Petition to Congress:

"Stop subsidizing billionaires like Jeff Bezos and the Walton family. Support Sen. Sanders' new bill to force big employers to either pay a living wage or be taxed the cost of the public assistance their underpaid workers must rely upon to survive."
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O Really
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Re: The Worker Thread

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Anti-union Republicans lose again in court. Don't these people even know any lawyers?

https://apnews.com/12718b0bfec149949830f930e701086d

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Re: The Worker Thread

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