Laws, Legal Interpretations and Government Flashcards
Fellow Servant Rule
absolves employers of responsibility if a co-workers actions caused the injury
Doctrine of Contributory Negligence
used to mitigate employers responsibility if the workers actions contributed in any way to the injury
Voluntary Assumption of Risk
workers who knew the dangers of the job when they took it assume associated risk
FECA (1916)
Federal Employee’s Compensation Act: federal employees equivalent of workers comp. Administered by the DOL.
LHWCA (1927)
Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act: provides workers comp for maritime workers whos injuries occur on the navigable waters of the US or on piers, docks, or terminals
BLBA (1969, amended 1977)
Black Lung Benefits Act: provides benefits to coal minters who have been disabled by pneumoconiosis. Benefits also paid to surviving dependents if its their cause of death
EEOICP (2000)
Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program: provides comp to employees and contractors of the DOE who were subject to excessive radiation while producing or testing nuclear weapons.
Burlington Industries vs. Ellerth
Establishes vicarious liability - “An employer is subject to vicarious liability to a victimized employee for an actionable hostile environment created by a supervisor with immediate (or successively higher) authority over the employee.”
An employer may be held accountable even if the employer isn’t aware of the actions.
Closely related to respondeat superior
Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988
Applies to Federal Contractors with $100,000 or more in federal contracts
Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc.
Ruled that “sexual harassment of any kind that meets the statutory requirements” must be covered under Title VII.
Meritor Savings Bank vs. Vinson (1986)
SC found that a claim of “hostile environment” sex discrimination is actionable under Title VII. The court rejected the idea the the “mere existence of a grievance procedure and a policy against discrimination” is enough protect an employer from acts of its supervisors.
Harris vs. Forklift Systems (1993)
Further defines hostile work environment as one that falls between one which is merely offensive and that which results in tangible psychological injury.
Faragher vs. City of Boca Raton (1998)
Found employers are responsible for the actions they employ and have a responsibility to control them.
Further, the supervisor doesn’t need to make explicit threat of tangible employment action (TEA) for the harassment to be actionable.
ECPA (1986)
Electronic Communication Privacy Act: the law permits employers to monitor communication that occurs in their normal course of business and when the employees give consent
prima facie violation
- The employee was engaged in a protected activity.
- The employer suspected or knew that the employee was engaged in the protected activity.
- The employee suffered an unfavorable employment action.
- The unfavorable action by the employer was circumstantially linked to the employee’s participation in the protected activity in a way that implied that their participation was a contributing factor in the unfavorable action.
