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- Title
Seniority Systems and Affirmative Action: Are They Legally Compatible in a Slack Economy?
- Authors
Offerman, Bernard J.
- Abstract
This article discusses the compatibility of internal job equity in the form of a seniority system and external job rights associated with equal and affirmative action. The article addresses various questions, such as, does the background and history of the seniority principle indicate a compatibility between organized labor and the civil rights movement, are seniority and affirmative action legally compatible in bad times as well as good times, in recession as well as economic expansion and do court decisions in 1982 indicate a legal accommodation that respects both interests. Seniority has been defined as "status secured by length of service for a company, to which certain rights such as promotion are attached." Seniority system, a more comprehensive term, has been defined as "a set of rules governing job movements in an employment unit-including promotion, transfer, downgrading and layoff." Such movements involve instances of seniority, in that employees bid or compete with each other. The labor movement of the late 19th century gradually established the seniority principle both through the collective bargaining contract and in the development of due process for employee grievances.
- Subjects
UNITED States; EMPLOYEE seniority; EMPLOYEE seniority laws; AFFIRMATIVE action program laws; PERSONNEL management; AFFIRMATIVE action programs; UNITED States economy; JOB security; LABOR unions; LABOR movement
- Publication
Labor Studies Journal, 1982, Vol 7, Issue 2, p99
- ISSN
0160-449X
- Publication type
Article