May 14th, 2010

WSJ: State anti-bully law would let workers sue for nastiness

Read the May 14, 2010 Wall Street Journal article
State Anti-Bully Law Would Let Workers Sue for Nastiness by R.M. Schneiderman

WBI counters the distortions

In the Schneiderman (WSJ) article: Copland tells it how it is in large law firms and on the stock trading floor “People are yelling, people are cursing, this is what happens.” OK, let’s accept that. Read the bill. It requires that for conduct to be abusive, it must be malicious and demonstrably health-harming. Some, but few, who work in such an environment will be harmed by the craziness. No harm, no complaint. But the 99.999999% of us who don’t work in such rarified places should not have to tolerate the conduct when it should not be a routine part of the culture. Mayor Bloomberg and writer Copland see the bill as a boondoggle for attorneys. On the plaintiffs’ side, most of the bullied workers will have lost their jobs, and with it lost the ability to mount a privately funded lawsuit against their wealthier (and insured) employers. It will still be David v. Goliath. And Goliath carries employment practices liability insurance that protects them from cash outlays for mounting an employment-related legal defense.

Tags: Schneiderman, Wall Street Journal

This entry was posted on Friday, May 14th, 2010 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Bullying in the News, Legislative Campaign. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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