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2019

Washington Attorney General takes action to protect farmworkers from sexual harassment

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s Office obtained a $525K settlement in a case involving sexual harassment and other charges involving female agricultural workers. In the era of #MeToo, this case shows a state focusing its efforts to combat sexual harassment on some of the most vulnerable, and often overlooked, workers.

The Northwest Justice Project referred the case to the Attorney General’s Office and represented the plaintiffs.

2018 Oct 09

Clean Slate Convening on Facilitating the Formation and Sustainability of Powerful Worker Organizations

(All day)

Location: 

Harvard Law School

First working group meeting of the Rebalancing Economic and Political Power:  A Clean Slate for the Future of Labor Law  Project

DATE & TIME Tuesday October 9, 2018, 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. (Closed session for Working Group II.B. Members - 3:30...

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After finding violations, Seattle Office of Labor Standards offers residential painting companies training on wage and paid time off requirements

The Seattle Office of Labor Standards found violations of minimum wage, paid sick and safe time, overtime, and other laws by two employers in the residential painting industry. The two employers paid $121,000 and $16,000 to a total of 35 workers. Following these investigations, the Office is holding a training for contractors in the residential painting industry, in an effort to educate employers and deter violations going forward.
Education Week Logo

'This Road Just Got a Lot Harder': Teachers' Unions Hit With New Round of Lawsuits

October 15, 2018

By Madeline Will
Education Week

Months after the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a hefty blow to teachers’ unions, a rash of new lawsuits has emerged that could further damage these labor groups. 

There are two main strands to this new wave of anti-union lawsuits: 1) challenges to time-limited windows during which teachers can opt out of membership payroll deductions, and 2) pushes for teachers to be reimbursed for the agency fees they paid before the Janus decision.

“Everybody knows where the end of this litigation road is, which is the Supreme Court,” said Sharon Block, the executive director of the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School. “Janus is sadly not the end of the road. This road just got a lot harder.”... Read more about 'This Road Just Got a Lot Harder': Teachers' Unions Hit With New Round of Lawsuits

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey’s Fair Labor Division

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey’s Fair Labor Division has been active this fall so far: the office settled a case with: (1) Maidpro for not paying workers for travel time; (2) a home care company for failing to pay overtime and for travel time; and (3) the beauty salon chain Minluxe over violations of state’s earned sick time law. The office also cited a medical transportation business for nearly 500K based upon misclassification and failing to pay overtime. Interestingly, Massachusetts is the only state in which the attorney general’s office is the primary enforcer of the state labor laws; elsewhere, state departments of labor typically play this role.
2018 Sep 17

What We All Can Learn from the 2018 Educator Walkouts.

(All day)

Location: 

Harvard Law School

Sponsored by National Education Association (NEA) and Labor and Worklife Program.

"Last week, the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School hosted an event with the National Education Association on the teacher walkouts that spread through red states from January to May 2018.  We held this event to learn as much as possible about what motivated tens of thousands of teachers to stand up for themselves and their schools.  The most profound lesson I learned was the importance of telling stories of...

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Dora Sari

What do we really know about trade and labor?

September 21, 2018

Labor and Worklife Program hosts workshop in the shadow of NAFTA negotiations

On August 31, Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program (LWP), in collaboration with the University of Reading, organized a workshop on the “Past and Future of Labor Provisions in the Context of Trade.” Coincidentally, it was the same day President Donald Trump, twenty-six years after the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), notified Congress of his intent to sign a revised agreement with Mexico and, potentially, Canada...

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2018 Aug 31

Past and Future of Labor Provisions in the Context of Trade

(All day)

Location: 

Harvard Law School

The key objectives of the workshop were to discuss new findings in recent research papers on the role and effectiveness of labor provisions and to assemble a high-level panel discussion with some of the most highly regarded experts in the field. 

 

New York Attorney General announced guilty plea of farm owner in child labor prosecution following death of a 14-year-old

New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood announced the guilty plea of Luke Park, owner of the Park Family Farm, for child labor violations related to the death of a 14-year-old boy in 2015. Park pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a minor, among other charges. The teenager was killed while operating heavy equipment prohibited by child labor laws. This criminal prosecution is one of dozens that the New York Attorney General’s Office has successfully brought in recent years, including a 2014 case also involving child labor violations, in which a minor’s arm was severed when he was assigned to clean an industrial machine.... Read more about New York Attorney General announced guilty plea of farm owner in child labor prosecution following death of a 14-year-old

DA’s Office in Harris County, Texas prosecutes wage theft

 Wage theft prosecution in Texas: The Harris County District Attorney’s Office charged a Houston-area homeowner with theft of service for not paying a worker who painted his house after Hurricane Harvey. This prosecution occurs in the context of widespread reports of wage theft in Houston after Hurricane Harvey. The Houston prosecution appears to be the second prosecution in the state under wage theft laws passed in 2011. A previous criminal prosecution in El Paso, which resulted in a jury conviction of wage theft, was overturned at the appellate level.... Read more about DA’s Office in Harris County, Texas prosecutes wage theft

NYC Office of Labor Policy and Standards finds widespread violations among home health agencies

 New York City Department of Consumer Affairs found widespread violations of law in investigations involving several dozen home health agencies. (In New York, the Office of Labor Policy & Standards is based within the Department of Consumer Affairs, and enforces New York City’s worker protection laws. While New York case law preempts municipalities from setting their own minimum wages, the City has passed a number of cutting-edge laws in recent years, including not only paid a sick leave law, but also laws protecting freelancers from nonpayment, and a law requiring fast food employers to make payroll deductions and remit them to a qualified fast food worker advocacy group upon a worker’s request.

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