Exam (elaborations)
WGU C233 Employment Law Notes taken from reading and quizzes,GRADED A
- Course
- Employment Law WGU C233
- Institution
- Western Governors University
WGU C233 Employment Law Notes taken from reading and quizzes
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WGU C233 Employment Law Notes taken from reading and
quizzes
Employment Law:1.1
• Law is a set of rules for human behavior which are established by legitimate
authority, and which have a binding force.
• Precedent: a controlling rule, example, or guide—which provided a
framework for other judges to follow in deciding later cases.
• The doctrine of a court following the precedent of an earlier court is known
as stare decisis.
• The power of the Supreme Court to consider whether a law comports
with the Constitution is called Judicial Review.
• The Constitution has two main functions: First, it establishes the three
branches of the federal government and allocates the division of powers
between them. Second, and more importantly for the employment law
context, the Constitution enumerates fundamental rights – the Bill of
Rights – of citizens and protects them from the government’s ability to
restrict those rights.
• The three branches of the federal government are the Legislative Branch,
the Executive Branch
and the Judicial Branch.
• The legislative branch is made up of the two houses of Congress—the
Senate and the House of Representatives. These bodies are tasked by the
Constitution to make laws for the “general welfare” of the people. The
executive branch is composed of the President and other executive
leaders, such as the Vice-President and the Cabinet. The President and the
Vice-President are elected by the people, while cabinet members, who lead
major departments in the federal government, are appointed by the
President. The executive branch conducts foreign affairs and ensures that
sound laws are created and enforced. The judicial branch, is the court
system of the country and is comprised of the United States Supreme Court
and other federal courts. Through actual legal controversies, the courts
explain and define the meaning of the Constitution and laws passed by
Congress. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land and its
decisions are final.
• 1963: Congress drafted legislation to eliminate employee discrimination.
• Civil Rights Act of 1964. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC) ensures the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is enforced.
• The Constitution contains a Supremacy Clause, which mandates that the
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Constitution, federal law, treaties, and federal regulations are the
highest laws of the land and have priority over state law.
1.2
• Agency is a contractual relationship (a legally binding agreement)
between a principal and an agent whereby the principal, expressly or
implicitly, authorizes the agent to work on his or her behalf and with
the power to bind the principal.
• Tort (a civil wrong which causes someone harm) for the acts or omissions
of the employee.
• This is known as vicarious liability, a concept which grew out of the
doctrine of respondeat
superior – “let the master answer for the servant.” Under respondeat
superior doctrine, an employer is only responsible for the employee
action performed within the scope of employment.
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• Scope of employment involves employee conduct which is
reasonably relative to a job description and foreseeable by the
employer as part of that job description.
• Frolic and detour: An employee’s physical departure from the job in
order to further their own interest and not the employers.
• Going and coming rule: a legal principle that removes an
employer’s liability from the employee’s actions going to and from
their place of employment.
• Dual purpose mission: occurs when an employee conducts personal
and work business at the same time: subjecting the employer to
liability for the employee’s action.
1.3
• Independent Contractor: A worker who is not subject to wage,
discrimination, tax, or liability laws.
• Tests to determine if a worker is an employee or independent
contractor: 1. Common law agency test; 2. Economic realities test;3.
IRS 20-factor analysis.
• Common law agency test, a worker is an employee if the employer
maintains the right to
control the method of work performed.
• Economic realities test seeks to look past technical, common-law
concepts of the master/servant relationship to determine whether
the “economic reality” of a working relationship renders a worker
substantially dependent on a given employer. Does the worker
have little freedom to exit the relationship.
Courts that have applied the economic reality test look at the following:
1. the degree of control exerted by the alleged employer over the worker;
2. the worker's opportunity for profit or loss;
3. the worker's investment in the business;
4. the permanence of the working relationship;
5. the degree of skill required to perform the work; and
6. the extent to which the work is an integral part of the alleged employer's
business.3
• 20-factor analysis as a guide to employers in determining if workers are
indeed independent contractors.
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A human resource professional must recognize when an employment law is applicable to the
employer and its employees. An HR professional could use the following steps to determine if a
law applies to a workplace situation:
1. The first step is determining which federal employment statutes apply to the firm. Some
federal laws apply to all employers regardless of size. Such is the case of the USERRA,
(Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act), and the NLRA,
(National Labor Relations Act). Others have application only if a firm has a specified
number of employees. For example, Title VII applies to firms with fifteen or more
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