Genetic testing: Your genes and your job

This article examines issues related to worker's exposure to substances in the workplace that may cause genetic damage and the use of genetic testing to assess and monitor such damage. The discussion includes the scientific principles of genetic testing and its accuracy and predictive value. The applicability of existing federal and state legislation to genetic testing is explored. Also analyzed are various legal and ethical issues, including union and nonunion employees' rights, workers' compensation, common law remedies, privacy and confidentiality, and an applicant's or employee's right to know test results.     

Drug testing in the workplace: An overview of legal and philosophical issues

This article examines a range of legal and philosophical issues related to the drug-testing debate. The discussion of legal issues includes potential litigation on constitutional grounds (for public employees), statutory and tort grounds, or on the basis of civil rights legislation. Arbitration standards are also examined for situations involving unionized employees. The article further highlights pragmatic issues including the accuracy and costs (economic and noneconomic) of drug tests as well as the distinction between a positive drug test and impaired performance. Finally, the article addresses the delicate balance between an employer's right to unimpaired performance and an employee's right to privacy.     

Employee attitudes toward drug testing: Effects of individual characteristics and employment setting

Testing for the presence of drug continues to gain popularity as a method for controlling drug use in the workplace. It is important that employers understand how potential applicants and current employees will react to the various types and purposes of drug testing. Employees (n = 529) were interviewed to investigate the role of attitudes toward drugs and work setting characteristics in explaining acceptance or rejection of drug testing. Individuals believing users should be held responsible for becoming dependent on cocaine, who felt the primary cause of cocaine addiction was weak moral character, and those who felt cocaine users should be treated as criminals were more supportive of drug screening and the testing of current employees.     

A better approach by management in drug testing

Discussed here are a number of drug abuse and drug testing issues. This article presents an overview of current developments in the area of drug testing in the workplace. There is an analysis of legislation, federal and state court decisions, and key legal arguments. These decisions and arguments are discussed in the context of employee rights and responsibilities. Also presented are the legal and ethical aspects of drug testing in the workplace. The authors make a case for a rehabilitative rather than a punitive approach to employee drug abuse.     

关于企业内部规章制度的法律思考

涉及劳动者切身利益的企业内部规章制度(劳动制度)是劳动关系的基本要素之一,直接关系到劳动关系乃至整个社会的和谐稳定,《劳动法》、《劳动合同法》都已对其内容、程序合法性做出了原则规定。其相关各方,包括用人单位、劳动者、行政主管部门及国家立法机关均应从法律的角度对其作认真的思考和审视。用人单位应切实按照三个合法性标准策划企业规章制度;劳动者在以规章制度作为行为规范的同时应懂得用其合法性标准维护自身权益;行政主管部门应切实履行职责,加强对企业规章制度合法性的专项监查;国家应实行劳动关系法治化,立法机关应进一步就企业劳动制度做出专项立法。     

论房屋拆迁立法中权力与权利平衡机制的构建

房屋拆迁在一定意义上就是行政权力与权利的博弈,而我国当前房屋拆迁立法存在权力与权利的严重失衡现象.建立和谐有序的拆迁制度必须从约束行政权力、释放权利入手,探求二者之问力量的平衡机制.基于此,以当前拆迁立法权力与权利配置处于失衡态势的基本判断为前提,根据区分原则提出公共利益需要、一般商业开发与成片旧城改造引起的三种房屋拆迁类型下,应当分别采取行政征收、行政登记和行政许可的行政权力介入模式,同时,构建了不同拆迁模式下行政权力与权利的平衡机制.     

The union response to employer-initiated drug testing programs

The testing of employees for drugs has become a major workplace issue in the late 1980s. By all accounts, many firms have implemented, or at least considered, some sort of drug screening program. While various experts have debated the importance and necessity of initiating such programs, there has been only limited investigation of the differences between union and nonunion workplaces in how such programs are initiated and administered. This article investigates some questions related to those differences. The first part examines the differences between union and nonunion workplaces and their implementation of drug screening programs. We present differences derived primarily from the fact that nonunion employers are constrained only by constitutional and statutory law in their introduction and implementation of drug screening programs. Unionized employers, on the other hand, are constrained by collective bargaining and the grievance resolution process. The second part of the article examines union responses to employer-initiated drug testing programs. The third part examines arbitration decisions on drug testing provisions in unionized workplaces. We outline the major areas in which arbitrators have rendered decisions, including definitions of behavior that could trigger reasonable suspicion testing and whether the employer has the right to unilaterally institute or expand drug testing programs.     

Employee drug testing: A constitutional perspective

The proliferation of employee drug testing by federal and state governments and by private sector employers acting pursuant to governmental directives has led to a steadily growing number of lawsuits raising constitutional challenges to such testing. Most of these cases have been based on the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures. In 1989, the Supreme Court addressed the constitutionality of employee drug tests for the first time in two cases,Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives' Ass'n andNational Treasury Employees Union v. Von Raab. Recognizing that urinalysis drug testing constitutes a search for Fourth Amendment purposes, the Court determined the constitutionality of the drug tests by balancing the governmental interest in the testing against the privacy interest of the employees and, in both cases, upheld the drug testing at issue. TheSkinner andVon Raab decisions provided guidelines for analyzing Fourth Amendment challenges to employee drug testing, and the lower courts are now in the process of applying and refining these guidelines. Constitutional challenges to employee drug testing programs have also been based on the due process clause and the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and on the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of religion. Unlike Fourth Amendment claims, however, these claims have rarely been successful.     

An analysis of the drug testing decision

Two separate investigations were undertaken to better understand the factors that should be considered in the drug testing decision. In the first study, organizations were surveyed by telephone and were asked to identify the factors considered when making their decision. Safety seemed to be the most important reason for favoring a drug testing program, while employee rights was one of many reasons for not implementing a testing program. In the second study, the interest was in determining the impact of drug testing on the applicants' willingness to join the organization. It was found that salary was the most important factor, but that the drug testing policy did affect the job choice of about 20% of the students.     

Temporary workers: Employee rights and employer responsibilities

As the number of temporary workers in the U.S. has increased dramatically over the past ten years, so, too, has social policy concent over the rights of temporary employees in the workplace and the responsibilities of employing organizations to them. This article first reviews the extent to which temporary workers can be considered “employees” of organizations and thereby be extended the same rights and protections as permanent, full-time employees. Then, the article reviews the current state of case law on the most salient legal issues pertaining to the treatment of temporary workers: discrimination, pay and fringe benefits, worker’s compensation, occupational safety and health, and union activity. The article concludes with the managerial implications of current labor law for compliance with legislative and judicial mandates.     

The effects of equal value claims on businesses

This article examines the law relating to claims by women employees that their work is of value equal to that performed by men. It focuses on several recent case-law authorities, considers difficulties with the legislation, and the possible non-compliance of UK law with EEC standards.     

无固定期限劳动合同的制定与实施

无固定期限劳动合同制定的目的是为了维护劳动者的权益,促进劳动关系的稳定。该条款在制定时就在立法者之间以及学者之间产生了极大的争议,不少大企业也为了规避该条款而紧急裁员。之所以会出现这些情况,本文认为这和无固定期限劳动合同的定位、我国的国情因素以及立法技术等方面都有着充分的关联。     

Virginia's New Ban on Public Employee Bargaining: A Case Study of Unions, Business, and Political Competition

This article explores the reasons why the Virginia General Assembly passed a law prohibiting public employee bargaining some 16 years after the Virginia Supreme Court had clearly ruled that such bargaining was impermissible absent express statutory authority. The impetus for this legislation apparently was a series of actions by Governor L. Douglas Wilder's administration involving payroll deductions for state employees. The Virginia case is compared and contrasted to the findings of recent aggregate quantitative studies of the determinants of public sector labor relations legislation, illustrating the relative influence of organized business interests over those of labor.     

A model of employee responses to drug-testing programs

Testing employees for drug use is an increasingly widespread organizational response to the problem of employee drug abuse. Despite this, little attention has been given to its effects on employee attitudes and behavior. This paper reviews the issue of drug testing in industry, provides a theoretical model of employee perceptions of and responses to drug-testing programs, and offers an agenda for future research directions.     

论行政不作为及其赔偿责任

行政行为是行政主体执行行政管理和社会服务活动的一种主要的手段和方式,行政行为的存在是为了实现社会良好的秩序及运行。但是,在现实生活中,由于受种种因素的影响,在行政管理活动中,行政主体做出各种行政不作为行为。随着社会发展和公民法律意识的提高,公民逐步认识到行政不作为行为给自身权益造成的侵害,从而要求保护自己的权益。因此,需要确立行政不作为的国家赔偿责任,时行政主体的不作为行为进行有效的司法监督,保障行政管理相对人的合法权益不受侵害,这也有利于社会安定和国家的长治久安。     

论行政不作为及其赔偿责任

行政行为是行政主体执行行政管理和社会服务活动的一种主要的手段和方式,行政行为的存在是为了实现社会良好的秩序及运行。但是,在现实生活中,由于受种种因素的影响,在行政管理活动中,行政主体做出各种行政不作为。随着社会发展和公民法律意识的提高,公民逐步认识到行政不作为行为给自身权益造成的侵害,从而要求保护自己的权益。因此,需要确立行政不行为的国家赔偿责任,对行政主体的不作为行为进行有效的司法监督,保障行政管理相对人的合法权益不受侵害,这也有利于社会安定和国家的长治久安。     

Drug testing litigation: Trends and outcomes

This article chronicles the trend in private sector drug testing litigation from 1984 to 1994, details the legal theories that employees have used to challenge employer drug testing policies, and reports the success of these challenges. A search of the Westlaw data base uncovered 140 private sector drug testing cases disposed by the federal and state courts over this period. An analysis of these cases indicates that drug testing litigation accelerated rapidly in the late 1980s and then plateaued in the 1990s, that grounds for lawsuits are numerous, and that the percentage of cases won by employees is currently as high as it has ever been. Accordingly, in recognition of the nature and scope of the risk involved in employee drug screening, the prudent human resource manager should continue to exercise caution in drug testing policy design, implementation, and administration.     

The evolution of honesty tests and means for their evaluation

Issues have been raised regarding means of honesty testing of employees. It seems probable that paper-and-pencil testing will be the most widely used method. This technique, though, must be improved before it will be more widely accepted. Scoring must be reevaluated, validation standards must be further refined, additional research is needed regarding the accuracy of the tests, and future legal challenges probably will have to be met with respect to such testing relative to privacy, discrimination, and union busting.     

The effects of pension rights and retirement age on training participation: Evidence from a natural experiment

This paper uses a natural experiment approach to identify the effects of an exogenous change in future pension benefits on workers' training participation. We use unique matched survey and administrative data for male employees in the Dutch public sector who were born in 1949 or 1950. Only the latter were subjected to a major pension reform that diminished their pension rights. We find that this exogenous shock to pension rights postpones expected retirement and increases participation in training courses among older employees, although exclusively for those employed in large organizations.     

民主视角下行政立法公开征集意见析论

我国的行政法规和规章因其调整的社会范围之广,几乎遍及公民生活的各个方面。为使这些行政法规和规章更好地保护公民利益,防范立法权被滥用,在行政立法程序中引入相应的民主参与机制---即公开征集立法意见是十分重要且必要的。本文先从行政立法公开征集意见的意义与价值出发,指出公开征集立法意见能捍卫公民表达自由的宪法权利,保障所立之法符合民主的核心要义。然后再从经济地位不平等、信息不对称等事实入手,分析这种表面民主下存在的问题。最后针对如何完善行政立法中公开征集意见制度提出自己的见解与设想。