Employment Law-related Research Opportunities
Devin Kinyon
this week's Pro Bono News of the Week. Please contact Candace Chen at
cc...@one-justice.org for more information.
Rural Education and Access to the Law (REAL) Research Projects
Research Project 1
Requesting Organization: California Rural legal Assistance (CRLA)
Research Topic: Protection of California Farm Workers Under International Law
Research Purpose: Find a legal basis in international law to
challenge California's farm worker laws
Research Question Focus: How to challenge the exclusion of farm
workers and irrigation workers from equal wage and hour protections
using applicable international law
Research Project 1: Research the background of international laws to
determine any potentially applicable or governing laws with respect to
farm workers in California. The research should also seek to determine
the positions of International Labor Organizations (ILOs) surrounding
the potentially applicable laws. Finally, draft a legal memorandum
discussing and analyzing the potentially applicable international laws
with respect to California farm workers.
Need: One law student researcher
Hours: 15 - 20 hours
Deadline: April 29, 2011
To volunteer for this research project or for more information, please
contact Candace Chen at cc...@one-justice.org.
Research Project 2
Requesting Organization: California Rural legal Assistance (CRLA)
Research Topic: Collecting Fees in Environmental Justice Case
Research Question: CRLA is representing two community groups in two
different cases regarding environmental justice issues. If CRLA and
its clients lose their case is there caselaw establishing that
opposing party can collect costs from an unincorporated, grassroots
organization?
Background: Farm Workers have faced a legacy of state-sanctioned
discrimination that continues to this day. The New Deal brought many
new protections to workers, but excluded agricultural workers from
most of the benefits. Included in these exclusions are the right to
form a union under the National Labor Relations Act, the right to
overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the right to
Unemployment Insurance.
In California, farm workers continue to be disadvantaged. California
Labor Code Section 510 establishes the eight-hour workday and the
forty-hour workweek. Section 554 states that agricultural workers are
excluded from this protection, however. This group of singled-out
workers is almost entirely non-white, many of whom are immigrants.
Because agricultural workers are typically indigent and lack
resources, and often have community groups advocating on their behalf,
one goal of this project is to determine whether grassroots
organizations can be ordered to pay attorneys fees and costs to the
opposing party if a lawsuit is unsuccessful.
Need: One law student researcher
Hours: 5-10 hours
Deadline: April 8, 2011
Format: Please provide your analysis in memorandum format
To volunteer for this research project or for more information, please
contact Candace Chen at cc...@one-justice.org.