Edward Nasser is a student at Harvard Law School.
The Province of Ontario is testing the effects of a basic income program on poverty, reports the New York Times. Ontario will provide a basic income to 4,000 people who are unemployed or who make an annual salary of less than 34,000 Canadian dollars ($24,000) in three different communities. Single people receive up to 17,000 dollars ($13,000) of basic income and they can keep half of what they earn from working–Canadians on welfare normally have to subtract all of what they earn from their monthly benefit, so this is considered an incentive to work. Couples get 24,000 dollars ($19,000).
Kadian Noble, a British Actress, is alleging that Harvey Weinstein and his company are liable for civil damages under a criminal sex trafficking law. The law bans the use of force, threat or coercion for a sex act in exchange for value. The alleged value in this case was a potential role in one of Weinstein’s films. Some lawyers interviewed by the New York Times expressed skepticism about the claims while others saw promise. The full complaint can read here.
A group of 19 Democratic state Attorneys General weighed in on a lawsuit in Pennsylvania over the Trump administration’s plan to allow some employers to not provide insurance coverage for contraception for their employees. The group alleges that allowing employers with religious or moral objections to choose whether their employees receive coverage for contraception violates the separation of search and state and encourages illegal workplace discrimination against women. Similar lawsuits were filed against the proposed contraception rules by the American Civil Liberties Union and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey.
The New York Times argues that retail jobs do not have to be “bad jobs.” Retail accounts for one of every eight private sector jobs and typically pays full-time workers less than $33,000 a year. A study published last month discussed in the Times piece, “Where Bad Jobs Are Better,” concluded that retail jobs do not have to be of such low quality. In other parts of the world, higher minimum wages, stronger unions, and different wage laws–including, in some parts of the European Union, that part-time workers must be paid at the same rate as full-time workers–combine to make retail jobs less unattractive than they are in the United States.
Daily News & Commentary
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April 3
NLRB says Amazon failed to bargain with union; Harvard graduate workers authorize strike, and states move to preempt local employment law.
April 2
Sheridan, Colorado educators go on strike; Maryland graduate student workers are one step closer to collective bargaining rights.
April 1
DOL proposes 401(k) rule; Starbucks investors reelect controversial board members; Washington passes workplace immigration warning requirement.
March 31
In today’s news and commentary, the Supreme Court hears a case about Federal Court jurisdiction over arbitration, a UPS heat inspection lawsuit against OSHA is dismissed, and federal worker unions and NGOs call on the EPA to cease laying off its environmental justice staffers. A majority of Supreme Court justices signaled support for allowing federal […]
March 30
Trump orders payment to TSA agents; NYC doormen look to authorize a strike; and KPMG positions for mass layoffs.
March 29
The Department of Veterans Affairs re-terminates its collective bargaining agreement despite a preliminary injunction, and the Federal Labor Relations Authority announces new rules increasing the influence of political appointees over federal labor relations.