Labor and Employment Law Books

A great book. If you've read Not in Our backyards and are interested to learn how environmental issues are solved in UK, read this book. It takes you all the way thorough the legal process, tells you where the problems are (usually scientific evidence - proving the cause-consequence relationship) and what the costs are. Is the way thorugh the legal process really worth it? In this book most of the cases have been successful and that can give you a good impression, but the author is cautios and warns you that not always everything works out ok. A book that will surprise you and teach you a lot of new, interesting points, but also make you see the real difficult side of taking your case to court.

This book shows that ERISA can be fun. I like the green cover, and all the inside jokes about the government (pay attention or you might miss 'em.) All in all, this is the kind of legal information book we've all been clamoring for. Hats off to Lewis!

This is great. It hits all the highlights of the various laws governing employment relationships. Of all the books I have on ADA and FMLA this is the best explanation I've seen. If you need or want to learn about employment law this is excellent. It's one volume packed with accurate information that can replace volumes of other books.

For anybody interested in the "nuts and bolts" of EU legislation and case law relating to Community labour law and social policy this book is a must. To understand the ongoing social dialogue at European level is even for experts hard to master. The author has managed to put together key material, both for the law student and the practitioner, to produce a comprehensive and informative sourcebook which makes compulsory reading for anybody interested in this field.

This is the Fourth Edition of an exceptionally valuable book which was first published in 1991. Weiss has updated his material to accommodate new laws, regulations, and court decisions which are directly relevant to discrimination and EEOC guidelines, employee verification and security, technology issues, sexual harassment, negligent hiring practices, management of people with disabilities, affirmative action, discipline and termination policies and procedures, defamation, violations of privacy, the Family and Medical Leave Act, evaluations and promotions, sex and age discrimination, and labor law.

As is also true of previous editions, the subtitle correctly indicates that Weiss explains "safe hiring, managing & firing practices to keep you & your company out of court." He organizes the material as follows:

Part I Safe Hiring Practices [re recruiting, interviewing, and employment decisions]

Part II Safe Management Practices [re evaluations and promotions, preventing sex discrimination and sexual harassment on the job, employee action laws and labor rights]

Part III Safe Firing Practices [re discipline and firing practices, public policy, management of older employees]

With Weiss's guidance, it is possible for the decision-makers in any company to complete what amounts to a comprehensive "audit" of any and all areas in which that company could be vulnerable to litigation. Of at least equal importance, the same "audit" will help the company to determine precisely what its obligations are as an employer as well as what the legal rights of each employees are.

Perhaps it would be helpful to those who read this commentary if I now provide a brief excerpt which is representative of the quality of Weiss?s counsel throughout the entire book. I have deliberately selected an especially troublesome area, one which has been the focal point of countless lawsuits: Employee Performance Evaluation. According to Weiss: ?Subjective rating systems in themselves are not illegal. The EEOC and the courts recognize subjective job standards such as communication and leadership skills) and that the words [in italics] good, satisfactory, poor, and unsatisfactory [end italics] carry within them subjective elements. So where do they draw the line?

1. When standards are unequally applied or do not exist at all; and

2. When someone shows that the standards or their absence produces disparate treatment in promotion and compensation policies, as for example:

? When sex stereotyping tainted the process by which a woman was denied a partnership in a [major] accounting firm or

? When subjective decision making torpedoed promotion policies that have disparate impact on minorities.

EEOC and court rulings encourage objective performance appraisals, but they discourage using them as a subterfuge for discrimination.?

Weiss devotes all of Chapter 6 to explaining HOW to formulate policies and procedures so that all evaluations and promotions are ?safe.? That is, they are in full compliance with all applicable regulatory laws, rules, and regulations.

Throughout this brilliant book, as Weiss rigorously and thoroughly examines hiring, managing, and firing practices which are both ethical and legal, he explains What You Can Do and What You Cannot Do. However, with all due respect to Weiss, qualified legal counsel should be consulted to ensure that all of a company's policies and procedures are "fair, square & legal." One of the many value-added benefits of this updated edition is that Weiss identifies a number of ?Cases? at the end of each chapter to which his readers and their legal counsel are referred. There are 17 cited at the end of Chapter 6.

An organization?s policies and procedures concerning employment law must then be carefully explained to all of its employees as well as contained within an employee manual. If at all possible, the same policies and procedures should be readily available online. Of course, they must be rigorously and consistently enforced. Even so, there may yet be frivolous lawsuits but at least the company has done everything possible to prevent them and is thus much better prepared to obtain a favorable decision in a court of law if and when involved in litigation.

For small-to-midsize companies competing in a litigious society, this book is more than a "must read": it is an absolutely essential source of information to which decision-makers (especially owners) of such companies should constantly refer. The term "frivolous lawsuit" is really a misnomer. Check a reputable dictionary of synonyms and you will learn that the word frivolous connotes "trivial, trifling, piddling, unimportant, insignificant, inconsiderable, petty, and paltry." On the contrary, an adverse decision resulting from a so-called frivolous lawsuit can destroy a company which has limited resources...or at least create truly serious problems for it, most of which are preventable.

The subtitle of Weiss's book correctly indicates that he explains "safe hiring, managing & firing practices to keep you & your company out of court." He organizes the material as follows:

Part I Safe Hiring Practices [re recruiting, interviewing, and employment decisions]

Part II Safe Management Practices [re evaluations and promotions, preventing sex discrimination and sexual harassment on the job, employee action laws and labor rights]

Part III Safe Firing Practices [re discipline and firing practices, public policy, management of older employees]

With Weiss's guidance, it is possible for the decision-makers in any company to complete what amounts to a comprehensive "audit" of any and all areas in which that company could be vulnerable to litigation. Of at least equal importance, the same "audit" will help the company to determine precisely what its obligations are as an employer as well as what the legal rights of its employees are.

Ultimately, with all due respect to Weiss, qualified legal counsel should be consulted to ensure that all of a company's policies and procedures are "fair, square & legal." They must then be explained to all employees. Finally, they must be rigorously and consistently enforced. Even so, there may yet be frivolous lawsuits but at least the company has done everything possible to prevent them and is thus much better prepared to obtain a favorable decision in a court of law.

Federal Disability Law in a Nutshell is a well written work explaining some of the finer points of disability law. I am not certain I would suggest paying full price for it now, as much of the information provided is available for [...]

This book is an invaluable tool for those of us who have the responsibility of all aspects of handling federal employees workers compensation. I have not found any publication directly from OWCP containing the information that is available in this book and to the extent that is in this book that does not take up a large amount of time just to research. Any information you may need is at your fingertips, and this book is totally up to date. The preface states that it may not have been published due to the many updates and changes of OWCP regulations, thank you to the editor who decided to"resuscitate" the new manuscript. Again, I can't express the value of the information, especially knowing how difficult it is getting information directly from OWCP. I strongly recommend this publication for all federal agencies.

Prof. Leader's work will change the way people think about freedom of association. It's a must read for anyone doing work in this field.

Moreno takes a broad-minded, scholarly perspective on civil rights law. He's not wedded to liberal shibboleths, but is no raving right-winger, either. Well-researched, well-written, very informative.