Labor law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Labor law - Essay Example In return, employers gained a loyal â€Å"internal labor market† of semi-trained workers that would save employers money required to recruit, and train. Beyond the implicit contract, unions were also successful in protecting against termination, requiring â€Å"just cause† instead of the more current employer flexibility of â€Å"at will† employment1. The ushering in of the boundaryless workplace has dismantled much of the New Deal labor structure, and has put a premium on individual skills and knowledge. Employees have become free agents in the workforce, needing such skills to compete for prevailing wages with no implicit or explicit guarantee of job security. The strongest protection workers now have is education and training. Stone also notes that those hurt the most by this instability are blue collar and untrained workers2. While the lack of security is tumultuous in itself, Stone argues that the current labor structure does not have answers for many of issues that the changing economy present. Using Stone’s method of chronicling historical changes in the employer-labor relationship, the trend towards a more flexible and boundaryless workforces has worked to improve opportunities for women and minorities. At the same time, however, she believes that, †the new employment relationship makes discrimination hard to identify and difficult to challenge3.† Successful attempts have been made to prevent overt discrimination such as Title VII, of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights law, the Age Discrimination Act of 1967, the Equal Pay Act of 1962, and the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act4. This legislation is effective in allowing women and minorities to gain access to the points of entry into an internal labor market, however, due to the breakup of internal labor markets, these acts do not address more modern forms of discrimination. Modern forms of discrimination have become