Employment Law: Health and Safety

Working can be surprisingly dangerous. Hundreds of thousands of employees every year suffer accidental injuries, occupational diseases, or become victims of violence in the workplace. However, injury rates have fallen steadily over the last century. What role has legal regulation played in this decline? How might existing laws be better designed to improve workplace health and safety without imposing unduly large regulatory burdens on employers? This course will consider questions such as these as we examine legal responses to work-related safety and health issues. We will study in some detail the workers’ compensation system and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). In addition to these central topics, we will also study several current controversies about issues such as workplace violence, drug testing, smoking, health insurance and healthcare reform. In order to develop your knowledge of the legal rules relevant to workplace health and safety, we will read judicial opinions, statutes, briefs and other litigation materials, as well as academic and popular commentary. We will focus the majority of our classroom time together on active learning exercises, including problems, simulations, and debates. I will deliver brief in-class lectures highlighting key issues and offer frequent opportunities for you to ask questions. You will often work in small groups to analyze problems and debate legal policies. Designed to complement Employment Law: Wage & Hour Regulation; Employment Law: Contracts, Torts & Statutes; Employee Benefit Law; and Employment Discrimination Law, this course has no prerequisite, and students should feel free to take these introductory employment law offerings in any order they wish.