Labor & Employment Law

Smith, Hodges, Stabile and Gely Principals of Employment Law

Four giants in the labor bar, professors Peggie Smith, Ann Hodges, Susan Stabile and Rafael Gely just published a needed book for Wests Concise Hornbook Series entitled Principles of Employment Law.

The book is concise and that is one of its strengths. It spans 309 pages, but covers all the major topics and major cases. More importantly, it does it well. What is nice about this book is that cites fairly recent cases and articles. There is no need to cite cases from the year two, as many hornbooks do, and the authors seem well aware of this. The book starts off defining the employment relationship and noting the different tests for employee status.

The book goes on to discuss the employment at will doctrine and even includes a discussion of the proposed Restatement of Employment that has proven to be very controversial. The book also covers such topics as privacy and the emerging area of dignity in the workplace.

Significantly, unlike a number of other employment law texts, this book discusses the NLRA in connection with the right to engage in concerted activity. The book also discusses OSHA and ERISA that are also often left out of employment law texts.

In short, this book is a must read for any employment law prof, for any student interested in employment law and for employment law attorneys. Finally, here is a new one for labor scholars. The book is being sold Target!

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on April 03, 2009 (boomark / email).