- Minimum wage laws are sentimental legislation with all-too-real effects [Jeffrey Dorfman] “Our Business’s Response to California $2 Minimum Wage Increase” [Coyote, with more on a union angle on minimum wage laws] Some experience from Europe [Steve Hanke, more, Cato overview of minimum wage debate]
- Connecticut fires state labor department employee who gamed system to get benefits for friend, then reinstates after grievance [Raising Hale] Oldie but goodie: union contract in Bay City, Mich. gave teachers five strikes to show up work drunk before being fired [Mackinac Center two years back]
- Background of Harris v. Quinn, now before SCOTUS: Blagojevich and Quinn favors for SEIU [George Leef, Forbes, earlier here, etc.]
- If you decline to hire applicants who’ve sued previous employers, you may face liability over that [Jon Hyman]
- More on class action seeking pay for volunteer Yelp reviewers [LNL, earlier]
- “Intriguingly, returns to skills are systematically lower in countries with higher union density, stricter employment protection, and larger public-sector shares.” [Eric Hanushek et al, NBER via Cowen]
- “L.A. Sheriff’s Department Admits Hiring 80 Problem Officers; May Not Be Able to Fire Them” [Paul Detrick, Reason]
Posts Tagged ‘public employment’
The Costa Mesa Syndrome
Reuters on the phenomenon of police harassment of local political opponents (earlier here, here, etc.) By no means are the reports limited to California:
There also have been allegations of intimidation by police in Cranston, Rhode Island.
On Jan. 9, Cranston Mayor Allan Fung announced that state police will take over an investigation into a flurry of parking tickets issued in the wards of two council members. The pair claim the tickets were issued as retribution after they voted against a new contract for police that would have given them a pay raise….
Major Robert Ryan, a spokesman for the Cranston Police Department, said: “The matter is under investigation, and pursuant to law enforcement’s bill of rights, no-one is going to comment on this.”
As readers may recall, those high-sounding “law enforcement bill of rights” gimmicks serve mostly to entrench law enforcement personnel against consequences or accountability for misbehavior, and thus have less than nothing to do with the Constitution’s actual Bill of Rights. More: Radley Balko.
His two hats
An arbitrator overseeing negotiations between New York City and unions is also a fund-raiser for incoming Mayor Bill de Blasio [Capital New York]
Mayor Bloomberg, in valedictory, warns of “labor-electoral complex”
The phrase “evoked the ‘military-industrial complex’ about which President Dwight Eisenhower famously warned the nation in a speech days before he left office in 1961.” [Times-Union]
Great moments in public employee tenure
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, an Illinois prison official “with a lengthy criminal history” has returned to the state payroll despite a record of “lewd and inappropriate emails” on the taxpayers’ dime and falsifying an earlier job application [Chicago Sun-Times]:
…Still, Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration struck a settlement with McCraven and his union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees….
In June, [after withdrawing a lawsuit] he then dropped a union grievance and accepted a 10-day suspension, got six months of back pay and was transferred to the job he now holds as senior adviser to the chief of parole with the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Asked to explain why McCraven was allowed to stay on the state payroll, the Quinn administration cited the potential financial costs of losing a grievance case. …
The Chicago Sun-Times reported Monday that McCraven is working for the state prison system despite being arrested “at least” 24 times on charges including arson, illegal gun possession, attempted robbery, drug possession and aggravated assault.
“Federal workers sue government post-shutdown”
“Even though they received back-pay, they are now suing the government….Their attorney said that late payment violates the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act and they’re now owed damages – adding up to hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars per worker.” [Mike Conneen, WJLA]
Labor and employment roundup
- Reminder: Second Amendment rights run against the government, not against your employer or other private parties [Eugene Volokh]
- Invasion of privacy? Employees continue to win awards and settlements by way of surreptitious recording devices in workplace [Jon Hyman]
- Gov. Brown signs bill creating overtime entitlement for California nannies, private health aides [Reuters, L.A. Times]
- Does rolling back a benefit under a public employee pension plan violate the Contracts Clause? [Alexander Volokh, Reason Foundation]
- Even as anti-bullying programs backfire, some propose extending them to workplace [Hans Bader, CEI, earlier]
- Background on Harris v. Quinn, SCOTUS case on herding family home carers into union fee arrangements [Illinois Review, earlier]
- “California unions target business-friendly Dems” [Steve Malanga]
“NSA Officers Sometimes Spy on Love Interests”
Public employment roundup
- “Retirement benefits cost Connecticut more than half of payroll” [Raising Hale] Jagadeesh Gokhale, “State and Local Pension Plans” [Cato] “In the report Krugman cites, the researchers note (repeatedly) that the trillion-dollar figure is very likely a dramatic understatement of the size of the unmet liability.” [Caleb Brown]
- California: “Bill would reinstate state workers who go AWOL” [Steven Greenhut]
- Eyebrow-raising federal salaries at unaccountable-by-design CFPB [John Steele Gordon, Commentary]
- “North Carolina Ends Teacher Tenure” [Pew StateLine]
- Not all states would benefit from a dose of Scott Walkerism, but Massachusetts would [Charles Chieppo, Governing]
- “Prison Ordered to Hire Back Guards Fired over an Officer’s Murder Because Everybody Else Was Awful, Too” [Scott Shackford]
- “New York State Lags on Firing Workers Who Abuse Disabled Patients” [Danny Hakim, New York Times] NYC educators accused of sex misconduct can dig in for years [New York Daily News]
- “Pennsylvania’s GOP: Rented by Unions” [Steve Malanga, Public Sector Inc.] NYC’s Working Families Party expands into Connecticut [Daniel DiSalvo, same]
Maryland roundup
- “Montgomery County firefighters can earn overtime pay while on vacation, or while taking sick days.” [Washington Post via @radleybalko]
- Will Maryland Court of Appeals overturn contributory negligence in favor of comparative negligence? [Michael Schearer page on pending case of Coleman v. Soccer Association of Columbia]
- “City Council postpones vote on Styrofoam container ban” [Baltimore Sun]
- Extensive political ties of Maryland speed camera vendor [Mark Newgent, WatchdogWire]
- Scheme to extend “Maintenance of Effort” regulations, which forbid counties from cutting budgets, from education to other service areas [Brian Griffiths, WatchdogWire]
- Fiscal sink: “Failed ‘Green’ Boutique Hotel Received Millions in State Loans” [Mark Newgent, WatchdogWire]
- Maryland ranks among states with most onerous occupational licensing burdens [Institute for Justice, “License To Work,” scroll to p. 78]
- Nice Chamber you got here in this state, be a shame if you didn’t sign this letter backing our guy Perez [Sean Higgins, Washington Examiner]
- Old but good: property tax cuts have revitalized other cities, and Baltimore needs one too [Steve Walters]