I was very surprised during the pandemic at how little some unions knew about workers' compensation. I'll be keeping a close look during this period of union agitation to see what is happening in collective bargaining agreements relating to workers'
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Gig Economy Bigger Than Thought and Growing
For several years I have been voicing my suspicions that the Gig economy was bigger than was being admitted. A new-ish study from Upjohn Institute persuades me that my instincts have not been failing me:We find that, upon probing, roughly…
Additional Reflections on Kuciemba (the Covid 19 Liability Case)
The workers’ compensation portion of the Kuciemba case holds that workers’ compensation exclusivity does not defeat “take home” liability. The exclusive remedy bar was found not to apply to this category of cases. A tort case would in principle have…
My Review of Stephanie Bornstein’s Article, “Confronting the Racial Pay Gap”
My review of Stepanie Bornstein's Confronting the Racial Pay Gap, 75 Vand. L. Rev. 1401 (2022), has just been posted on the Jotwell (Journal of Things We Like Lots) website. For those who may not know, Jotwell publishes timely reviews…
Earnings Disparities and Workers’ Compensation Issues Connected to Race and Ethnicity
Many employee benefits systems, including workers’ compensation, are pegged in a purportedly neutral fashion to earnings. Thus, in workers’ compensation we might say that a benefit is based on 66 2/3% of the preinjury average weekly wage capped at the…
Implications of Reshoring for Workers’ Compensation Systems?
Sick Workers, Sick Families, Employer Immunity: California Picks a Pyrrhic Victory in Kuciemba
Nero fiddled, and I really don’t know how white powder made its way into the White House. But I do know that the California Supreme Court just issued an opinion in Kuciemba v. Victory Woodworks that will be incredibly hurtful…
Justia’s Workers’ Compensation Laws: 50-State Survey
Hat tip to my research assistant Alexa Benson for alerting me to the Justia Workers' Compensation materials (especially the 50-state comparative survey). I plan to begin aggressively exploring with my RAs this summer open source workers' compensation comparative materials. Hopefully…
On the Workers’ Compensation Quid Pro Quo and the Racial Wage Gap
Some obvious things take their time to hit me in just the right way that I take notice. I spend a lot of time thinking and writing about what I perceive as the inherent unfairness for all workers embedded in…
Wefel Center Conference: Fifty Years After ‘Inadequate and Inequitable’
We will be having a conference at the Saint Louis University School of Law on workers' compensation on Tuesday, October 11:In 1970, Congress noted in its prelude to enactment of the Occupational Safety and Health Act that “serious questions have…