Handle with care: Avoiding and managing retaliation claims

Anti-retaliation protections for whistleblowers are routinely included in federal statutes. During the past decade, claims of retaliation in employment-related cases have grown in numbers and in reach, due in part to a seemingly far-reaching commitment by the U.S. Supreme Court to interpret anti-retaliation provisions to provide maximum protection to complainants. Employers must take care not to run afoul of the anti-retaliation provisions; however, that does not mean that employees who complain of discrimination are ‘untouchable.’ This article provides an overview of anti-retaliation law as it relates to the employer–employee relationship and outlines eight practical tips for managing and avoiding retaliation claims. Though anti-retaliation provisions provide ample reason for employers to proceed with caution in the face of employee complaints, employers need not succumb to paralyzing litigation fear when addressing concerns regarding complaining employees’ performance issues.     

Preventing and correcting workplace harassment: Guidelines for employers

In recent years, the number of harassment claims filed with the EEOC has declined overall, but this fact masks a frightening reality: though claims involving some types of harassment have declined, claims for other types of harassment—especially nontraditional forms of harassment—have actually increased. Therefore it remains necessary for employers to maintain a current anti-harassment program, which should consist of the following elements: (1) a clear anti-harassment policy; (2) an explicit statement of prohibited behaviors that can be considered harassment; (3) a complaint procedure that encourages employees to come forward with harassment complaints; (4) protections for complainants and witnesses against retaliation; (5) an investigative strategy that protects privacy interests of both the alleged victim and the accused offender and ensures confidentiality to the extent possible; (6) periodic management training and employee awareness programs that continue to communicate the organization's position on this issue; and (7) measures and processes to ensure prompt corrective action to stop ongoing harassment, and appropriate remedial and disciplinary actions for offenders. In this article, we provide best practice recommendations concerning each of these elements.     

论WTO法律框架下的跨TRIPS协定交叉报复

贸易报复是wT（）争端解决机制赋予当事方的最后救济手段。如今。跨TRIPS协定交叉报复逐渐成为受到弱小经济实体欢迎的新方式。实践也证明这种报复形式的确有其优越之处，既能对发达工业化国家败诉方产生有效的威慑作用，刺激其及时执行DSB裁决，还可改善报复实施国家的社会福利水平。不过和所有新兴事物一样。跨TRIPS协定交叉报复也存在风险，报复实施方需要精心谋划对策，才能确保此种报复方式之优越性得以充分发挥。     

Reprisal, retribution and requital: Investigating customer retaliation

Customers, regardless of context or culture, will go to any extreme to retaliate against an offending service provider. Retaliation is an action taken in return for an injury or offense [Huefner, J.C. and H.K. Hunt, “Consumer retaliation as a response to dissatisfaction,” J Consum Satisf Dissatisfaction Complaining Behav, (2000); 13, 61-82.]. To date, research has had only a limited discussion of customer's use of anti-consumption behaviors as an expression of retaliation. This study uses qualitative methods to demonstrate that the motivations for retaliation extend beyond simply “getting even,” customers retaliate to teach the service provider a lesson or to save others from the same fate. The research identifies specific roles taken by customers as they retaliate, the emotions of customers and store issues that are at the root of these behaviors. In addition, the authors categorize a range of retaliatory behaviors as follows: cost/loss; consumption prevention; voice, exit and betrayal; and boycotting.     

On the role of retaliation in trade agreements

This paper analyzes the role of retaliation in trade agreements. It shows that, in the presence of private information, retaliation can always be used to increase the welfare derived from such agreements by the participating governments. In particular, it is shown that retaliation is a necessary feature of any efficient equilibrium.We argue that retaliation would not be necessary if governments could resort to international transfers or export subsidies to compensate for terms-of-trade externalities. Within the current world trading system, though, in which transfers are seldom observed whereas export subsidies are prohibited, the use of the remaining trade instruments in a retaliatory fashion might be optimal. The model is used to interpret the retaliatory use of antidumping observed in the last decades, and the proliferation of these measures relative to other trade remedies.     

艾森豪威尔政府第二次柏林危机政策的形成——兼论大规模报复战略的缺陷

冷战初期,尤其是艾森豪威尔政府执政时期,美国奉行的是＂大规模报复战略＂。然而在第二次柏林危机中,艾森豪威尔政府在拟定应对危机的政策时,并没有以大规模报复战略作为指导原则。大规模报复战略之所以被抛弃,是因为其存在着不可克服的局限性。     

Globalisation,Women's Economic Rights and Forced Labour

Globalisation critics are concerned that increased trade openness and foreign direct investment exacerbate existing economic disadvantages of women and foster conditions for forced labour. Defenders of globalisation argue instead that as countries become more open and competition intensifies, discrimination against any group, including women, becomes more difficult to sustain and is therefore likely to recede. The same is argued with respect to forced labour. This article puts these competing claims to an empirical test. We find that countries that are more open to trade provide better economic rights to women and have a lower incidence of forced labour. This effect holds in a global sample as well as in a developing country sub‐sample and holds also when potential feedback effects are controlled via instrumental variable regression. The extent of an economy's ‘penetration’ by foreign direct investment by and large has no statistically significant impact. Globalisation might weaken the general bargaining position of labour such that outcome‐related labour standards might suffer. However, being more open toward trade is likely to promote rather than hinder the realisation of two labour rights considered as core or fundamental by the International Labour Organisation, namely the elimination of economic discrimination and of forced labour.     

我国报复威胁与美国对华反倾销关系实证研究

金融危机以来,我国遭遇反倾销的态势愈发严峻,文章探讨报复威胁对反倾销的抑制作用,采用1980~2008年美国对华反倾销及相关数据,运用泊松回归模型,验证了两种报复威胁渠道的效应,结果表明:我国产业界的报复性反倾销威胁降低了美国对华反倾销发起频度;而我国在WTO争端解决机制下的报复威胁没有阻止美国政府在对华反倾销案中作出肯定性裁决。     

国际反倾销报复表象分析

文章先从国际反倾销国别分布的总体情况出发分辨出可能存在反倾销报复行为的国家和地区,然后利用两两国家或地区之间的反倾销数据,以绝对数量、相对数量和实施最终措施比率三个指标来判断主要国家和地区之间的反倾销报复行为。分析表明,国际反倾销存在报复表象,这在印度、美国和欧盟等9个国际反倾销的主要国家和地区中得到较显著的反映。但总的来看,国际反倾销还只是存在一定程度且范围不太大的报复表象。     

Antidumping and retaliation threats

We propose and test two ways in which retaliation threats may dampen the antidumping (AD) activity we observe. First, the threat of retaliatory AD actions may make a domestic industry less likely to name a foreign import source in an AD petition. Second, the prospect of a GATT/WTO trade dispute may make government agencies less likely to rule positive in their AD decision. Using a nested logit framework, we find evidence that both retaliation threats substantially affect US AD activity from 1980 through 1998.     

Work Ethic,Locus of Control and Salesforce Task Performance

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between work ethic, locus of control and salesforce task performance. Using data from Uganda retail firms, this study finds that work ethic was a significant positive predictor of salesforce task performance. Further, there was a significant relationship between the different behavioural families of work-related activity work withdrawal behaviours, organizational retaliation behaviours and salesforce task performance. Results from regression analysis indicate that organizational retaliation behaviours and work withdrawal behaviours are important factors for explaining declining performance of salespeople in Uganda retail firms. Managers aiming to improve salesforce task performance should recruit individuals with a strong work ethic. Additionally, retail managers need to reduce work withdrawal and organizational retaliation behaviours so as to increase salesforce task performance.     

Auctioning countermeasures in the WTO

We offer a first formal analysis of auctioning retaliation rights within the WTO. We show that the auctions exhibit externalities among bidders, and we characterize equilibrium bidder behavior under alternative auction formats. If the violating country is prevented from bidding to retire the right of retaliation against it, then the possibility of “auction failure” arises, whereby no bids are made despite positive valuation by bidders. If the violating country is instead permitted to bid, then auction failure is precluded, and indeed the right of retaliation is always retired. We evaluate these different auction formats from normative (revenue, compliance, efficiency) standpoints.     

基于报复角度的国际反倾销分析

国内外学者通过研究发现一国(地区)遭受反倾销后,有可能对别国(地区)进行报复性反倾销,这样会导致国际反倾销的日益增加。我们通过整理WTO公布的1995-2010年间的反倾销数据,从反倾销的国别或地区、行业和年份等方面进行了研究,认为:印度、美国、欧盟和阿根廷的反倾销报复能力比较强,已经成为全球反倾销的主要国家(地区),中国和韩国的反倾销报复能力比较弱,已经成为全球被反倾销的主要国家(地区)。进一步地,我们将主要反倾销国家(地区)与主要被反倾销国家(地区)之间的反倾销案件进行比较后,认为一国(地区)遭受反倾销特别是来自于主要反倾销国家(地区)的反倾销时,若没有进行有效的反倾销报复,其他国家(地区)也会加入对该国(地区)的反倾销队伍中来,使其面临更多的反倾销。     

WTO subsidy rules and tariff liberalization: evidence from accession of China

Countries increasingly rely on subsidies to assist their producers leading to concerns about their potential misuse. The WTO regulates its members’ subsidies by defining subsidies that are permissible, as well as by providing means to retaliate against subsidies of partner countries if these subsidies hurt one's interest. However, these subsidy rules might have an unintended effect. As both subsidies and tariffs are substitute instruments of protection, tighter subsidy rules might lead to a decrease in the pace of tariff liberalization. In this paper, we present first empirical evidence in support of this prediction. Using China's accession to the WTO in 2001 as a case study, we show that China's accession to the WTO was associated with a relative increase in its tariffs for products that faced a higher threat of retaliation against subsidies. More importantly, we also show that increases in tariff were larger in products with higher potential costs imposed by retaliation. Finally, we include several robustness tests as well as conduct two counterfactual exercises to verify that the results we obtain are indeed due to perceived threat of retaliation against subsidies.     

The non-equivalence of tariffs and quotas under retaliation

This note shows the non-equivalence of tariffs and quotas when foreign retaliation is allowed for. Using a Cournot-Johnson type of retaliation mechanism it is shown that, contrary to the case of tariffs, quota retaliation will lead to the elimination of international trade between the countries involved.     

WTO棉花争议案中交叉报复的研究

鉴于中国与贸易伙伴贸易摩擦的增多,深入研究WTO争端解决机制及案例对加入世贸不久的中国来说,如何更好地利用WTO争端解决机制具有重要意义。对交叉报复和对报复要求仲裁的理解是对WTO争端解决机制进行深入研究的两个重要方面。     

Consumer Perceptions of Health Claims in Advertisements and on Food Labels

It has been hypothesized that consumers are more skeptical of health claims made in food ads than of health claims made on food labels. Therefore, the current research explores consumers' skepticism of health claims when the source of such claims is identified as a food ad or a food label. The study also examines whether consumers' beliefs are affected by nutrition information on food labels and whether health claims that have been challenged by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and by consumer groups are more likely to affect consumers' beliefs than are unchallenged health claims. The findings have implications for understanding the role of education in reducing consumer misperceptions of health claims.     

The Role of Qualifying Language on Consumer Perceptions of Environmental Claims

A copy-test of seven environmental claims on aerosol packages shows that consumers interpret general, unqualified claims (e.g., environmentally friendly or ozone friendly) as meaning the product is safe for the environment in both an absolute (safe) and a relative (safer) sense. These perceptions of environmental safety are enhanced by specific qualifiers for general claims such as No CFCs and general qualifiers for specific claims. In addition, the results show that almost all specific environmental claims improve consumers’ perceptions of the aerosol product relative to general claims for environmental benefits of the product. Implications for marketing and public policy professionals are presented.     

Gender fatigue: The ideological dilemma of gender neutrality and discrimination in organizations

Although gender discrimination remains a feature of working life in many contexts, research on gender in organizations has shown that workplaces are often constructed as gender neutral. This poses an ideological dilemma for workers: how can they make sense of gender discrimination at work while presenting their workplace as gender neutral? This article explores that dilemma through an analysis of how information communication technology (ICT) workers talk about gender discrimination. Instead of denying gender discrimination, workers acknowledge it can happen but construct it as singular events that happened in the past and they place the onus on women to overcome such obstacles. Navigating the ideological dilemma around gender neutrality and discrimination, interviewees display what the article characterizes as gender fatigue. Copyright © 2009 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Colliding Interests – Age as an Automobile Insurance Rating Variable: Equitable Rate-Making or Unfair Discrimination?

Many private business relationships are increasingly characterized by claims that certain actions should not be permitted since particular right claims are involved. Such claims should be taken seriously, but are they always ethically legitimate? This paper analyzes one context, the use of age as a rating variable in the pricing of automobile insurance, where such claims are made. By identifying, evaluating and assessing the relevant basis for the differentiation, actuarial equity, it is concluded that there is an ethical basis for such a practice. The analysis also provides an equivalent means for considering other such analogous claims where actuarial equity is involved.