Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire: The Feasibility of Post-Dispute Employment Arbitration Agreements

Changing the law to enforce only post-dispute agreements to arbitrate will not solve the problems of arbitration as a condition of employment. This change would leave the majority of employees who need arbitration in order to obtain justice empty handed, which is a situation far worse than the one employees face today. Rather than change from one unacceptable option to another, models for voluntary pre-dispute arbitration agreements need to be further developed

Employment Arbitration and Workplace Justice

SOME CVIL RIGHTS lawyers look at the growth of employment arbitration and see the end of workplace justice. Others see an exciting opportunity to create workplace justice. How can this be possible? How can attorneys with the same values see the same development in diametrically opposite ways? The heart of the answer lies less in these attorneys\u27 different perceptions of alternative dispute resolution ( ADR ) than in their different perceptions of the civil justice system. Different attorneys have conflicting opinions on how well the civil justice system provides workplace justice and these opinions shape their attitudes regarding arbitration in the workplace

Statement of the American Civil Liberties Union Before the Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations

The American Civil Liberties Union supports the use of alternate dispute resolution in employment if it is voluntary and meets reasonable standards of fairness. Because of the narrowness of legal bases for relief and economic barriers to litigation, many people with legitimate disputes with their employers are unable to obtain relief in the civil courts. ADR holds the promise of increasing the number of people who are able to obtain justice in workplace disputes. ADR, however, contains the potential for enormous abuse. Absent external constraints, the employer has the ability and the incentive to shape its private justice system in a manner that will allow it to prevail in most cases. Very few individual employees have sufficient bargaining power to resist such abuses. It is imperative that the law prevent employers from requiring a de facto surrender of civil rights as a condition of employment. ADR should be permitted, but only when it is voluntary and contains reasonable due process protections. There are significant problems achieving such a system, especially in providing a truly neutral arbitrator in the absence of a union. These problems, however, are soluble, and need not destroy the cost effectiveness of ADR. While ADR has much to offer, it does not relieve the government of its obligation to provide a civil justice system which the average person can afford

Capability in the digital: institutional media management and its dis/contents

This paper explores how social media spaces are occupied, utilized and negotiated by the British Military in relation to the Ministry of Defence’s concerns and conceptualizations of risk. It draws on data from the DUN Project to investigate the content and form of social media about defence through the lens of ‘capability’, a term that captures and describes the meaning behind multiple representations of the military institution. But ‘capability’ is also a term that we hijack and extend here, not only in relation to the dominant presence of ‘capability’ as a representational trope and the extent to which it is revealing of a particular management of social media spaces, but also in relation to what our research reveals for the wider digital media landscape and ‘capable’ digital methods. What emerges from our analysis is the existence of powerful, successful and critically long-standing media and reputation management strategies occurring within the techno-economic online structures where the exercising of ‘control’ over the individual – as opposed to the technology – is highly effective. These findings raise critical questions regarding the extent to which ‘control’ and management of social media – both within and beyond the defence sector – may be determined as much by cultural, social, institutional and political influence and infrastructure as the technological economies. At a key moment in social media analysis, then, when attention is turning to the affordances, criticisms and possibilities of data, our research is a pertinent reminder that we should not forget the active management of content that is being similarly, if not equally, effective

Climate warming shifts riverine macroinvertebrate communities to be more sensitive to chemical pollutants

Freshwaters are highly threatened ecosystems that are vulnerable to chemical pollution and climate change. Freshwater taxa vary in their sensitivity to chemicals and changes in species composition can potentially affect the sensitivity of assemblages to chemical exposure. Here we explore the potential consequences of future climate change on the composition and sensitivity of freshwater macroinvertebrate assemblages to chemical stressors using the UK as a case study. Macroinvertebrate assemblages under end of century (2080–2100) and baseline (1980–2000) climate conditions were predicted for 608 UK sites for four climate scenarios corresponding to mean temperature changes of 1.28 to 3.78°C. Freshwater macroinvertebrate toxicity data were collated for 19 chemicals and the hierarchical species sensitivity distribution model was used to predict the sensitivity of untested taxa using relatedness within a Bayesian approach. All four future climate scenarios shifted assemblage compositions, increasing the prevalence of Mollusca, Crustacea and Oligochaeta species, and the insect taxa of Odonata, Chironomidae, and Baetidae species. Contrastingly, decreases were projected for Plecoptera, Ephemeroptera (except for Baetidae) and Coleoptera species. Shifts in taxonomic composition were associated with changes in the percentage of species at risk from chemical exposure. For the 3.78°C climate scenario, 76% of all assemblages became more sensitive to chemicals and for 18 of the 19 chemicals, the percentage of species at risk increased. Climate warming‐induced increases in sensitivity were greatest for assemblages exposed to metals and were dependent on baseline assemblage composition, which varied spatially. Climate warming is predicted to result in changes in the use, environmental exposure and toxicity of chemicals. Here we show that, even in the absence of these climate‐chemical interactions, shifts in species composition due to climate warming will increase chemical risk and that the impact of chemical pollution on freshwater macroinvertebrate biodiversity may double or quadruple by the end of the 21st century

OC /EFSA /SCER /2014/02‐Lot 1 “Specialised training courses on certain aspects of food safety risk assessment for members of EFSA 's Scientific Committee/Panels and their working groups, open to EFSA staff” –final report

This final report evaluates the training courses delivered under the contract OC/EFSA/SCER/2014/02- Lot 1. Two types of specialised training courses were delivered: a training course addressing uncertainty in EFSA’s scientific assessments and a training course on Environmental Risk Assessment. Both trainings were evaluated as very good by the participants. In addition to its primary aim of supporting the understanding and practical implementation of best risk assessment practices, the uncertainty training was used to obtain feedback on the draft guidance document. Therefore, only invited participants could follow the training and selection ensured that each unit was represented in the training. The training course now has to be updated in line with the final version of the guidance document. One of the objectives of the training was to strengthen the dissemination of ERA guidance and modelling practises and to ensure the uptake of guidance on cross-cutting risk assessment approaches amongst members of EFSA’s Scientific Committee/Panels, their working groups and EFSA staff. This aim is partly achieved as participants of different backgrounds joined the trainings. It was noted however, that only a few panel member participated and participants with a background in pesticide risk assessment were over-represented as compared to the other work fields of EFSA

Congress could soon spell the end of employment arbitration—but it’s not all good news for American workers.

Employment arbitration has become a dirty word on Capitol Hill. Congressman Hank Johnson claims that arbitration allows employers to stack the deck against the little guy for the 60 million employees bound by arbitration agreements. The Economic Policy Institute calls it an epidemic that is undermining decades of progress in labor rights