What is the rule of law that governs the Court’s analysis of the case? Consider and discuss the practical implications of the Court’s decision for both the employers and the applicants/employees.

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Employment discrimination

For this assignment, select one of the four cases listed below dealing with employment discrimination based on age and religion.

Prepare a paper in which you discuss the facts of the case, the relevant provisions of the statute, and how the court interpreted and applied the provisions of the statute to the issues presented in the selected case.

Age Discrimination (Age Discrimination in Employment Act) Cases -Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc., 530 US 133 (2000). Retrieved from https://www.oyez.org/cases/1999/99-536. -Gross v. FBL Finance Services, Inc., 557 U.S. 167 (S. Ct. 2009). Retrieved from https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/557/167.html. Religious Discrimination (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964) Cases -Peterson v. Hewlett-Packard Co., 358 F3d 599 (9th Cir. 2004). Retrieved from http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1423047.html. -EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, 575 US _____ (2015). Retrieved from https://www.oyez.org/cases/2014/14-86.

Your paper should begin with a discussion of the essential facts of the case, including a brief summary of the lower court decision(s) which gave rise to the appeal.

Your discussion of the facts should be followed by a detailed analysis of the case. Your analysis should indicate what legal issues are presented in the case – in other words, what issues is the Court attempting to address and resolve?

Some cases might have only a single issue, while others may have more than one. After you have described the facts and identified the legal issues presented, you should identify the relevant provisions of the law that the Court is interpreting in the case.

In other words, what is the rule of law that governs the Court’s analysis of the case?

Finally, you should summarize the Court’s decision, or holding, in the case, and discuss how the Court reached its decision.

You must also consider and discuss the practical implications of the Court’s decision for both the employers and the applicants/employees.

Your assignment should be in the form of a paper analyzing and discussing a case or set of facts pertaining to one or more areas of employment law.

 

Evaluate and assess workplace protection legislation, identify the law pursuant to the employment-at-will (EAW) doctrine and legal exceptions and apply this understanding to a business scenario, and explain legal requirements for hiring new employees and your own home state laws as to workers’ compensation and immigration.

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The Value of Fair Treatment in the Workplace

Overview
In this assignment you evaluate and assess workplace protection legislation, identify the law pursuant to the employment-at-will (EAW) doctrine and legal exceptions and apply this understanding to a business scenario, and explain legal requirements for hiring new employees and your own home state laws as to workers’ compensation and immigration.

Instructions
Respond to the following in 4–6-pages:
Cite two federal laws that you believe are the most important for protecting employees from workplace discrimination. Provide a compelling argument for the effectiveness of the legislation in protecting employees and two case law examples to support your assessment.

Explain the actions that employers must take to verify legal employment in the United States.
Some states do not allow undocumented workers, or those not legally allowed to work in the United States, to receive workers’ compensation benefits. Provide the law in your home state and a compelling and supported (with research) argument advocating for or against your state’s practice of allowing or denying workers’ compensation benefits to undocumented or illegal workers.

Provide a comprehensive summary of the employment-at-will (EAW) doctrine that includes all possible legal exceptions designed to fight wrongful termination.
Cite and support (with research) an appropriate EAW exception that the employee in each of the following scenarios could reasonably argue to save their job.

Scenario 1: JoAnn, a manager, started a blog on the company website for employee grievances and problems. She noticed that a worker was protesting that allegedly no Asian American employees had gotten a raise in two years at the company. Christine, the employee, also criticized how much CEO Elon had made last year and how he was “out of touch” with the realities of his employees. JoAnn reminded Christine that she was an employee-at-will. The next day, Christine talked to her fellow co-workers about forming a union. JoAnn fired Christine and Christine is suing for wrongful termination.

Scenario 2: Steven, a department supervisor, fired his secretary, Ann. Ann, devout Christian, had been putting Right-to-Life flyers in the employee break room. Steven talked to Ann twice and reiterated her actions were not appropriate. Ann continued to leave the pamphlets and was also taking time away from work to pray at her desk during the busiest times of the morning. Ann is suing for wrongful termination.

Based on the presentation of laws in this chapter, do you think there is too little or too much government intervention? Fully justify your response.

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Fully Discuss following questions

1.Define strategic compensation.
2. Some people argue that there is too much government intervention, while others say there is not enough. Based on the presentation of laws in this chapter, do you think there is too little or too much government intervention? Fully justify your response.

Using the PIRAC method advise Elizabeth as to her legal rights under Australian law. Would the position be any different under Hong Law?

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BAA215 Business and Corporate Law Major Assignment

CHOOSE either Problem A OR Problem B

Problem A

Elizabeth has recently moved to Hong Kong from Australia. Her spoken Chinese is exceptional, but she does not read or write Chinese terribly well, and she has little experience in the way business is conducted in Hong Kong.
Elizabeth ran a successful food merchant business in Australia and is now in the process of establishing a similar business here in Hong Kong. She approaches Felix to negotiate the supply by Felix’s business, The Crispy Chicken, of food for her business.

During the negotiations, Felix realises how little Elizabeth understands Hong Kong business practices, and convinces her to agree to pay much more for his food than he charges similar customers. He tells her that it is unusual for Hong Kong businesses negotiating such an arrangement to use legal representation. He also tells her that it is normal practice for a customer in her position to distribute materials advertising his restaurant to all her own customers, and to commit to a contract with him for at least ten years.

Elizabeth explains that these arrangements would be extremely unusual in Australia, but Felix insists that that is the way things are usually done in Hong Kong and that she has no choice but to agree to them, since any other supplier would insist upon the same thing. When Felix instructs his solicitors to draw up the contract, he tells them to make it especially complicated and legalistic.

Elizabeth signs the contract agreeing to all of Felix’s requirements, and she does so without seeking independent legal advice or reading it herself. A few weeks later after talking to some helpful Hong Kong friends, she realises that she may have done the wrong thing and is now wondering whether she can cancel the deal she has made with Felix.

REQUIRED
1. Using the PIRAC method advise Elizabeth as to her legal rights under Australian law. Do not refer to any Australian legislation in your answer.
2. Would the position be any different under Hong Law? in your answer consider the application of the Unconscionable Contracts Ordinance (Cap 458) Hong Kong.

Problem B

Matthew, Roger, Brian and Fred are all ex-soldiers and have decided to start a private security business. Due to ownership issues and the benefits associated with having limited liability, their lawyer recommends that they should register a company for the business. They agree and instruct their lawyer to register a company to be called Acme Security Pty Ltd. It is agreed that Matthew, Roger, Brian and Fred will each be allotted 100 ordinary shares in the company.

After the company is registered, they decide to employ Albert as Office Manager and Company Secretary. He is provided with a uniform which states his job title as “Office Manager”.

Belinda works in used car sales and is a good friend of Albert who tells Wanda about his new position at Acme Security Pty Ltd. Belinda tells Roger that she has been trying to sell a truck and it would be perfect for the security business. Belinda shows Albert the truck and lets him drive it. Albert agrees that the truck would be a great addition to the security business and thinks the price Belinda is asking is very reasonable. Albert agrees to buy the truck for the company and signs a sales order, as “Company Secretary” for and on behalf of Acme Security Pty Ltd.

The company refuses to pay Belinda for the truck and denies any liability under the contract.

REQUIRED
Using the PIRAC Method advise whether Belinda can rely on the assumptions in s 129 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) in enforcing the contract against Acme Security Pty Ltd. Do not refer to Hong Kong Law.

In your initial post, identify and discuss potential political impacts and ethical questions that could result from the program or policy evaluation you are proposing in your Final Paper.

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Political Impacts & Ethical Questions

Prior to beginning work on the discussion forum, be certain to have read all the required resources for this week.

In your initial post, identify and discuss potential political impacts and ethical questions that could result from the program or policy evaluation you are proposing in your Final Paper. Make sure to identify relevant stakeholder variables and any other extrinsic socio-political variables that could potentially affect your evaluation proposal.

Corsaro, N., Brunson, R. K., & McGarrell, E. F. (2014). Problem-oriented policing and open-air drug markets: Examining the Rockford pulling levers deterrence strategy. Crime & Delinquency, 59(7), 1085-1107. doi:10.1177/0011128709345955

Research and explain the pros and cons of this debate. After you have presented both sides of the debate, decide where you stand in this debate and why.

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Legalize it

The debate over the legalization of marijuana in the United States has been raging for over a century, with both sides having clear points of view. Research and explain the pros and cons of this debate. After you have presented both sides of the debate, decide where you stand in this debate and why.

Describe any controversies, successes, political initiatives, policy changes, or anything you deem pertinent and important to a proper and thorough understanding of the topic of your evaluation proposal. Explain the impact of political and ethical issues associated with the program evaluation. Identify the impacts and issues that will be readily identifiable and those that could be inadvertent, affecting stakeholders after the completion of the proposed evaluation.

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Literature Review

For this assignment, you will draft the literature review section of your Final Paper by utilizing research skills to locate appropriate scholarly sources that focus on criminal justice and related disciplines. You will need to cite no less than 15 scholarly sources in your Final Paper. As a result, most of those sources will occur within the literature review section. For an example and explanation, peruse the Writing Center’s Literature Review (Links to an external site.) information page.

A literature review can be envisioned to be very similar in tone to a traditional term paper you might have written during your undergraduate education. The literature review is just that: A review of relevant scholarly work related to the topic on which you are writing. In your paper,

Describe any controversies, successes, political initiatives, policy changes, or anything you deem pertinent and important to a proper and thorough understanding of the topic of your evaluation proposal.
Explain the impact of political and ethical issues associated with the program evaluation.
Identify the impacts and issues that will be readily identifiable and those that could be inadvertent, affecting stakeholders after the completion of the proposed evaluation.

(Not all unexpected impacts are negative, so it is entirely possible unintended outcomes could be beneficial. Make sure to include such happy accidents.)

The “Literature Review” assignment

Must be 750 to 1250 words minimum in length (not including title and references pages), double spaced, and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Writing Center (Links to an external site.).
Must include a separate title page with the following:
Title of paper
Student’s name
Course name and number
Instructor’s name
Date submitted
Must use at least 15 scholarly sources in addition to the course text.
Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Writing Center.
Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Writing Center.

Required Resource
Text
Rossi, P. H., Lipsey, M. W., & Freeman, H. E. (2004). Evaluation: A systemic approach (7th ed.). Retrieved from https://content.uagc.edu

· Chapter 7: Measuring and Monitoring Program Outcomes

· Chapter 8: Assessing Program Impact

· Chapter 11: Measuring Efficiency

Recommended Resource
Article
Llewellyn, J. J., Archibald, B. P., Clairmont, D., & Crocker, D. (2013). Imagining success for a restorative approach to justice: Implications for measurement and evaluation (Links to an external site.). Dalhousie Law Journal, 36(2), 281-316. Retrieved from https://library.ashford.edu/ezproxy.aspx?url=http%3A//search.proquest.com/docview/1534250199?accountid=32521

Evaluation Proposal

The focus of the Final Paper will be on the creation of an evaluation proposal suitable for presentation in a criminal justice setting or agency. The proposal will center on needs assessment, impact monitoring, and the application of quantitative and/or qualitative techniques in the assessment of the selected program or policy. Rossi, Lipsey, and Freeman (2004) discuss the social context of evaluation. Your evaluation proposal should assess the effectiveness of a program or policy, addressing a specific problem proposed or developed as a solution to a contemporary issue in your chosen area of specialization within the Masters in Criminal Justice program: Law Enforcement and Corrections Administration, Cybercrime and Technology, Forensic Science, or Homeland Security. Utilize research skills to locate a minimum of 15 appropriate scholarly sources to support your statements within the required sections below. Small sections of the evaluation proposal will be completed throughout the progression of the course. Students can use those sections verbatim within the text of the Final Paper if they so choose. The evaluation proposal will be assessed based on the inclusion of the following elements:

Introduction
Present your research question and introduction from the assignment you completed in Week Two.

Literature Review
From the assignment you completed in Week Four, compose a literature review comprised of previous scholarly material and research results relevant to your selected topic.

Program or Policy Description

· Describe the program or policy that is to be evaluated, including its purpose, stakeholders, history, and outcomes, which will be part of your introduction and description you completed in Week Two.

· Explain the impact of relevant issues, including potential political, social, economic, and/or cultural constraints associated with this program or policy.

Proposal Narrative

· Present your measures and methodology from the assignment you completed in Week Three.

· Critique the design of the program or policy by describing the methodology, including the data to be collected, the means of collection, and how the data will be used.

· Identify a proposed budget and projected schedule for the evaluation.

Summary
Summarize the expected outcomes, the questions to be answered, and the expected results that would indicate success of the program or policy.

Utilize research skills to locate an appropriate scholarly program evaluation proposal. Critique the design of the program evaluation. Examine the research hypothesis. Analyze the evaluability of the program or policy under consideration by the researcher. Describe the research methodology employed by the researcher, and identify any ethical issues that might be salient to the study.

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Critique an Evaluation Proposal

Prior to beginning work on the discussion forum, be certain to have read all the required resources for this week.

Utilize research skills to locate an appropriate scholarly program evaluation proposal. Critique the design of the program evaluation. Examine the research hypothesis. Analyze the evaluability of the program or policy under consideration by the researcher. Describe the research methodology employed by the researcher, and identify any ethical issues that might be salient to the study. It might be savvy to select an article based upon a design you might consider using for your Final Paper.

Do the enforcement mechanisms for the FLSA match the challenges it presents? How might we amend the law or alter enforcement to account for the nature of work and changes in the labor market in the 21st Century? If you were to modernize the FLSA, would you make changes to the scope of exempt and non-exempt employees? If so, how? Be specific in your analysis.

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Fair Labor Standards Act

The Fair Labor Standards Act provides overtime protections for non-exempt employees. At its inception, it was designed to be a broad statute covering the vast majority of workers. Some commentators have argued that the Act should be modernized. After all, the FLSA was passed in 1938 and reflects, at least in part, the political economy of the time it was passed and not the current era. The FLSA—like much of our work law—was designed for manufacturing in urban centers. It was designed mostly with men in mind. It was designed for able-bodied persons. It was designed to benefit a population that was mostly white. It was designed to address a world where most workers were employees. It was designed to preserve a particular balance of power between management and labor.

  • Do the enforcement mechanisms for the FLSA match the challenges it presents?
  • How might we amend the law or alter enforcement to account for the nature of work and changes in the labor market in the 21st Century?
  • If you were to modernize the FLSA, would you make changes to the scope of exempt and non-exempt employees? If so, how? Be specific in your analysis.

Cite to law and address counter-arguments that one might raise against your proposal.

 

Create an Introduction to your work that addresses the question “What intellectual property issues arise in your workplace?”   What is the state of IP in your workplace? What suggestions might you make? How important is IP?

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Case Study of  Company Name by Your Name

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • Patents
  • Trade Secrets
  • Copyrights
  • Trademarks
  • Right of Publicity
  • Conclusion

 

Introduction

  • Create an Introduction to your work that addresses the question “What intellectual property issues arise in your workplace?”  Some prompts you might consider:
    • who important is IP in your business?
    • how much time and attention has been paid to IP policies, forms, and legal issues?
    • What role does IP play in the HR context (forms, departing employees, new employees, etc.)

 

Patents

The majority of the patents that we deal at my company are utility patents as that category covers chemical and biological compositions.  The pharmaceutical industry has specific IP issues.  Often times a drug product is covered with some form of exclusivity, whether it is a patent or regulatory exclusivity.  There are a few main requirements for patent eligibility under the U.S Patent Act are: Patentable Subject Matter, Novelty, Non-Obviousness, Adequate Disclosure.  A typical timeline of acquiring a U.S Patent is 3-5 years.

As part of the process, my company has a disclosure of invention form that is to be filled out for any patents and submitted to the legal department for review and confirmation of next steps.  The ownership described in these patents is the company directly as the patents are worked on during work hours and are specifically requested by the employer.  We have 3 product patents for 3 of our drugs.

Trade Secrets

There are various trade secrets that are found at my current employer.  This includes inventions, disclosures, processes, compounds, biological materials, gene sequences, systems, methods, formulae, devices, patents, patent applications, trademarks, intellectual properties, instruments, materials, products, patterns, compilations, programs, techniques, sequences, designs, research of development activities and plans, specifications, computer programs, source and object codes, costs of production, prices and other financial data, sales-related data and information, promotional methods, costs of production, prices and other financial data, sales related data and information, marketing plans, lists of names or classes of customers, or personnel, list of suppliers, business plans, business opportunities, financial statements, financial models, or financial projections, information regarding compensation of the Company’s employees and other service providers and the existence and content of any business discussions, negotiations or agreements between the Company and third party.

The steps that have been taken to keep the secrets secret include ensuring employees sign an employee confidential information and inventions agreement upon hire.  The language included is a (1) noncompetition; at will employment, (2) no solicitation 3) confidential obligation (4) information of others, (5) company property (6) ownership of inventions (7) excluded inventions as an exhibit B, (8) invention records; patent applications, (9) representation of no prior contracts, (10) agreements with the United States Government and other Third Parties (11) termination procedures as well as other miscellaneous clauses that govern the law.  Additionally, our Information Security team has put various steps in place to secure the Company’s data.  This includes a process to preapprove any software installation, inability to upload any work documents to one’s personal google drive, strict measures in company used phones as well as laptops, all types of traceability in data as well as a process to claim ownership of inventions.

As part of the onboarding process, new hires are expected to complete all paperwork assigned to them in the designated Human Resources Information System.  As part of the offboarding process, employees exiting the organization are expected to acknowledge that they understand their obligations that was agreed to when hired.   Consultants are expected to sign an NDA, confidentiality agreement, and non-solicitation agreements.

The policy suggestions I would make regarding trade secret protections include restricting the ability to send any company documents to personal email addresses outside of the organization, ensuring that access is cut off during the termination, have the IT do an audit of the employee’s devices and provide to HR to discuss and remind the employee of their obligations as well as ask any clarifying questions during the exit interview process.

I was unable to locate any whistleblowing provisions under the DTSA which leads be to believe we don’t have one listed for my current employer.

Copyrights

The type of copyright work I find in my place of employment includes any work made for hire that is written or recorded, such as an email with published research with clinical trial information, online reports with proprietary data, postings of news stories including social media, software licenses leveraged, videos that are produced from an employment branding perspective or any music that I use for a company event.

As a work made for hire, the employer is the owner unless a written agreement was signed.  According to the United States Copyright Office, section 101 of the Copyright Act defines a “work made for hire” in two parts:

  1. A work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment or
  2. A work specially ordered or commissioned for use
  • As a contribution to a collective work,
  • As part of a motion picture or other audio-visual work,
  • As a translation,
  • As a supplementary work,
  • As a compilation,
  • As an instructional text,
  • As a test,
  • As an answer material for a test, or
  • As an atlas

If the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered work made for hire.

My current company uses other’s copyrighted works from photo stock to clinical study data/findings, software licenses for employees to leverage, learning & development programs, tools, trade journals, and video tapes.

According to the U.S Copyright Office, Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances.  Section 107 of the Copyright Act provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is fair use and identifies certain types of uses – such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also calls for consideration of the following four factors in evaluating a question of fair use: purpose and character of use, including whether the use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes, nature of the copyrighted work, amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole, and effect of the use upon the potential market of the copyrighted work.

The types of employees that we have at our company includes employees and independent contractors which are both creating copyrighted materials.  The types of contracts in place for employees are offer letters in the U.S and Canada and contracts in the UK.  We also have confidentiality agreements in place, and non-solicitation clauses.  For independent contractors we have Statement of Work, Master Services Agreements, Confidentiality agreements, and non-disclosure agreements.

Right of Publicity

The state that I live in is California.  As part of my employment agreement with my company, employees sign their right of publicity away.  In particular, the employer has a release form that states that the employee agrees to allow the company to use their photos at any time during employment without the obligation of any monetary compensation from the Company.  This can include using my name, photo, and likeness for Company benefit.

The right of publicity issues that my company might have includes hiring actors for our commercials as well as actual patients that use our products to share their story about how the product has improved their quality of life.  The process is to have the actor/patient sign a right of publicity contract and be compensated so we can use their likeness as part of our advertisements or endorsements.  We also advertise our products on magazines, the internet, external presentations and other forms of marketing materials for our products that include photos or videos of people that were specifically hired for their likeness.

California has a right of publicity statute, California Civil Code Section 3344 states, in pertinent part: “Any person who knowingly uses another’s name, voice, signature photograph, or likeness, in any manner, on or in products, merchandise, or goods, or for purposes of advertising or selling, or soliciting purchases of, products, merchandise, goods or services, without such person’s prior consent…shall be liable for any damages sustained by the person or persons injured as a result thereof.”  This statute prohibits “knowing” use of a person’s name/likeness/etc.  This statute focuses on advertising uses of a person’s likeness.  The courts have interpreted the statute to impose a three-step test: 1) was there a knowing” use of the plaintiff’s protected identity? 2) was the use for advertising purposes and 3) was there a direct connection between the use and the commercial purposes?  The statute also contains an explicit exception for uses “in connection with any news, public affairs, or sports broadcast or account, or any political campaign.” § 3344(d).

There are right of publicity cases in California.  One in particular was Hansen v. The Coca-Cola Company.  The case concerns who has the right to use Hubert Hansen’s publicity.  In 1935, Hubert founded a fresh juice company in Los Angeles that bore his last name.  After his death in 1951, his children and grandchildren continued to operate and expand Hubert’s business.  Forty years later, Monster Energy purchased the business that was run by Hubert’s descendants.  Thereafter, Monster Energy used Hubert’s name and story to market some of its juice, lemonade, and soda products.  Hubert’s descendants demanded that Monster pay for the use of Hubert’s publicity.  In the end, the court found that the right to use Hubert’s publicity was not included in the deal.

The issues, terms and information I was able to find regarding right of publicity in California cover living individuals as well as family members of the deceased.  In addition to California Civil Code Section 3344 which covers living persons, I also found that California Code, Civil Code – CIV § 3344.1 (a)(1) covers the deceased and states, “any person who uses a deceased personality’s name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness in any manner, or in products, merchandise, or goods, or for purposes of advertising or selling, or soliciting purchases of, products, merchandise, goods, or services without prior consent from the person or persons specified…shall be liable for any damages sustained by the person or persons injured as a result thereof.  In terms of limitations for CIV § 3344.1, section € states, “if any deceased personality does not transfer his or her rights under this section by contract, or by means of a trust or testament instrument, and there are no surviving persons as described in subdivision (d), then the right set forth in subdivision (a) shall terminate.

I believe that the culture of where I live in California has significant impact on the laws of right of publicity in my state as California is where the world’s biggest film industry is located.  One of the most well-known cities is Hollywood where it is filled with celebrities that make a living of their likeness.  Stars like Dwayne Johnson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Steve Jobs, Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie are all from California.  They spend their entire career building their persona and certainly deserve the protection of their likeness. 

Conclusion

  • Create a Conclusion
    • What is the state of IP in your workplace?
    • What suggestions might you make?
    • How important is IP (reiterating the intro)