Disturbing Trend of More Temporary Workers
The New York Times highlights a disturbing trend that has occurred during the Great Recession: the greater percentage of workers being hired as temporary employees instead of permanent ones. Temporary workers often get lower wages, have little or no benefits, less job security, and less chance of promotion and a lasting career. This is obviously bad news in the short term, but the possibility that this could be a long term feature of the economy is even more troubling. Unfortunately, Japan provides an example of exacting this occurring. To make matters worse, unemployed workers who get...
Read MoreIssues Raised by New Types of Workplace Drug Testing
This New York Times article discusses an important employment issue that may become more prevelant: whether and how employers may test and discipline employees for using legal prescription drugs. As the article relates, drug testing like this is regulated in part by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In North Carolina, two other state statutes can come into play. First is the Controlled Substance Examination Regulation, N.C. Gen. Stat. 95-230 et seq., which specifies some of the required procedures for drug testing. Second is the statute protecting against workplace discrimination...
Read MoreDecreasing Wages Continue Trend that Helped Cause Great Recession
Several recent articles highlight both the continuing pressure on workers’ wages as well how decreasing wages helped cause the Great Recession in the first place. This article points to a troubling reality that even for those unemployed people fortunate to find a new job, that new job often means a decrease in wages and living standards. This article describes how the entire annual increase in health care costs is being borne by employees with employer health insurance instead of being borne by the employers. This is but one example of the skyrocketing cost of health care over the...
Read MoreMott’s Strike Highlights Pressure on Workers
A strike at the Mott’s apple juice plant in New York highlights a significant issue besides the pay for these particular workers, as noted by this New York Times article: “The union movement and many outsiders view the strike as a high-stakes confrontation between a company that wants to cut its labor costs, even as it is earning record profits, and workers who are determined to resist demands for wage and benefit givebacks.” The parent company here, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, is not alone in making large profits even as workers earn less and less. Our economy, however,...
Read MoreNY Times Looks Again at the Burden on Working Parents
Prompted by a stark pattern on the U.S. Supreme Court, David Leonhardt of the New York Times addresses the continuing burdens on working parents that still mostly fall on women. Because employers do not make reasonable accommodations for parental leave, parents who take time off often suffer long-term drops in pay and position, or stop working altogether. Paid parental leave would help to address this issue. And, he notes, “With Australia’s recent passage of paid leave, the United States has become the only rich country without such a policy.” But, given implacable...
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