Litigation

Op-ed on NY's workplace bullying bill

By James R. Copland

In today's New York Daily News, I have an op-ed, co-written with my colleague E.J. McMahon (director of MI's Empire Center for New York State Policy), on the workplace-bullying bill that passed the New York state senate last Wednesday (see my earlier post here). We suggest that the bill would effectively kill "at will" employment in New York, in the process hitting employment hard. As we explain--and as Point of Law readers are aware--this legislation is part of a national effort:

The bill is closely patterned after model legislation advocated by the Workplace Bullying Institute, which claims to be part of an "international movement" on the issue. The group's Web site claims, among other things, that "many of the European Union nations have substantially more legal employee protections which compel employers to prevent or correct bullying."

In other words, passing this legislation will make New York State more like Europe, which has hardly been a job creation dynamo. Even if you're willing to assume this type of law works well in Europe, our neighbors across the Atlantic have radically different legal systems: EU countries have essentially no American-style discovery process and no civil juries. Moreover, in every EU jurisdiction, the loser in a lawsuit pays all costs, which deters shakedown suits because an ultimately victorious employer can recover legal expenses.

Full post as published by Point of Law on May 19, 2010 (boomark / email).