8th Annual Current Issues In Employment Law

Employers everywhere today must delicately balance the need to maintain a safe and proper workplace with employees rights and the risk of liability. The fact that new technologies make it easier for employers to monitor their employees whereabouts, communications, and activities only serves to make the issue more acute. Now, in this collection of essays by outstanding scholars and practitioners in U.S. labour law and practice, employers and their legal counsel will find a broad array of important contributions to the law and study of workplace privacy. Based on papers delivered at the 58th annual labour conference of the New York University Center on Labor and Employment Law, this book reflects and analyzes recent developments, providing the best comprehensive work on U.S. workplace privacy. How far should employers be allowed to go in monitoring employers? Where do employers rights to run their businesses end and employees privacy rights begin? Is the existing law sufficient to resolve recurring conflicts? These are among the big questions tackled in these articles. Among the many specific issues covered are the following: use of global positioning systems (GPS) in tracking employees; background checking for job applicants; email monitoring; physical monitoring of employees; scope and lawfulness of so-called lawful activity laws; employer involvement in employees nonworkplace behaviour (e.g., drug testing); employees rights of association; regulation of fraternizing and dating among employees; employee privacy issues in employer-union bargaining; privacy issues in public sector employment; privacy issues and threats of terrorism; and efforts by employers to verify employees nationality and immigration status. Authors pay special attention to fast-break developments such as in the extraterritorial reach of the European Union s data protection directive and the current status of the U.S. National Labor Relations Board s Register-Guard decision. A special feature is a very early draft of a chapter of the forthcoming Restatement (Third) of Labor and Employment Law made available through the graces of the American Law Institute on the U.S. common law of employee privacy rights. As always, this important annual publication offers definitive current scholarship in its theme area of labour and employment law. As such, it will be of inestimable value to practitioners, government officials, academics, and others interested in developments in employment and labour relations law and practice.

In recognition of the growing importance of global labour and employment law, the Center for Labor and Employment Law at New York University School of Law dedicated its 61st Annual Conference on Labor to an in-depth examination of issues arising in this area. This volume of the proceedings of the 2008 conference contains papers presented at that meeting, all here updated to reflect recent developments, as well as additional contributions from other practitioners and academics with extensive knowledge and experience in the field. Experts from both the practicing bar and academia – twenty-seven in all – use their unique strengths to address issues worthy of concern in each juridical realm. An unusual feature of this volume in the series is its in-depth attention to comparative law in the field, with exploration of developments in China, France, and New Zealand, as well as in European Union law. As always, this annual conference captures valuable insights and syntheses of central labour and employment law issues and will be of great value to practitioners and academics in the field.

Barack Obama’s famous “Blueprint for Change,” part and parcel of the campaign that culminated in his historic election as U.S. president in November 2008, openly announced his support for the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 1409) suggesting that major change was imminent in U.S. labor and employment law. Although promised legislative change has yet to materialize, there appears to be a growing consensus that the current system for addressing employment disputes in union-represented and non-union workplaces deserves renewed attention and needs significant restructuring. Thus, the issues taken up by this prominent U.S. conference remain relevant to policy debates which will likely continue to rage in the United States for years to come. Based on papers delivered at the 2009 conference of the New York University School of Law’s Center on Labor and Employment Law – the 62nd in this venerable and highly influential series – the book presents articles updated by the authors to reflect more recent developments, as well as new papers to ensure a comprehensive and current analysis of both what has actually changed and which trends seem to be gaining momentum. Twenty-two outstanding scholars and practitioners in U.S. labor law and practice pay special attention to such issues as the following: mandatory arbitration of employment disputes in non-union sector; call for improved administration of the National Labor Relations Act in expediting elections and reinstating discriminatees; more privatized forms of dispute resolution such as arbitration and mediation; card-check and neutrality agreements bypassing government processes; proposed reform of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act; evaluating market-based defenses to pay equity claims; EEOC initiatives in public enforcement of equality law; and challenges to labor relations in state and local governments.

The Employment Law Review, edited by Erika C Collins of Proskauer Rose LLP, serves as a tool to help legal practitioners and human resources professionals identify issues that present challenges to their clients and companies. As well as in-depth examinations of employment law in 48 jurisdictions, the book provides further general interest chapters covering the variety of employment-related issues that arise during cross-border merger and acquisition transactions, aiding practitioners and human resources professionals who conduct due diligence and provide other employment-related support in connection with cross-border corporate M&A deals. Other chapters deal with global diversity and inclusion initiatives across the globe, social media and mobile device management policies, and the interplay between religion and employment law. Contributors include: Els de Wind, Van Doorne; Annie Elfassi, Loyens Loeff. "e;Excellent publication, very helpful in my day to day work."e; - Mr Frederic Thoral, Head of HR, BNP Paribas"e;Excellent coverage and detail on each country is brilliant."e; - Mr Raani Costelloe, General manager of Legal and Business Affairs, Sony music Entertainment, Australia"e;An excellent resource for in-house counsel for a company with an international footprint."e; - Mr John R Pendergast, Senior Counsel, BASF Corporation, USA"e;It's invaluable to any lawyer dealing with cross-border and privacy-related employment issues and is a cornerstone to my own legal research"e; - Oran Kiazim, Vice President, Global Privacy, SterlingBackcheck, UK