The Myth of Equality in the Employment Relation

Although it is widely understood that employers and employees are not equally situated, we fail adequately to account for this inequality in the law governing their relationship. We can best understand this inequality in terms of status, which encompasses one’s level of income, leisure and discretion. For a variety of misguided reasons, contract law has been historically highly resistant to the introduction of status-based principles. Courts have preferred to characterize the unfavorable circumstances that many employees face as the product of unequal bargaining power. But bargaining power disparity does not capture the moral problem raised by inequality in the employment relation, and thus, it has failed to inspire any meaningful attempt to address that inequality. By contrast, a status-based approach would motivate several common sense doctrinal changes. The persistent myth of equality is still more paradoxical in the context of labor law. Due to political constraints and several sources of uncertainty about its future, the National Labor Relations Act was limited to a bare bones framework for collective bargaining. Later amendments and judicial interpretations entrenched a strictly procedural interpretation of the Act oriented toward the goal of minimizing commercial disruption rather than disrupting status inequality. The present regime sustains a false image of unions as equal in strength to employers, in need of only an illusive level playing field. As a result, it does not effectively mitigate the negative dimensions of social status stemming from employment. A few modest changes would help re-orient or at least broaden the Act so that unions can play a meaningful role in mitigating status inequality

Bone-tendon and bone-ligament interface

Reconstruction or repair of ligaments and tendons to bone, following injury, to improve joint function is a very common surgical procedure in orthopedics. The most common surgical ligament reconstruction in humans is anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. Because ACL is not amenable to repair after tear, replacement of the ligament using autograft or allograft tissue is currently the treatment of choice for young and active patients. On the other hand, surgical reattachment to bone is the most reliable treatment in case of rotator cuff tendon tears. Tendon grafting or repair to bone is performed during hand, foot, and ankle surgery. Nowadays, ACL reconstruction and repair of rotator cuff tendon tears are the most commonly performed surgical procedures for soft tissue injuries in orthopedics. © 2014 Springer-Verlag London. All rights are reserved