Doctoral Dissertation: Social Reform Through Legal Action: Mobilizing the Family and Medical Leave Act in the Workplace

该项目涉及法律和社会研究的三个领域的交叉：法律的意识和权利动员，法律和竞争规范，法律和社会变革。 它在工作场所的背景下审查了工人思考和行使《家庭和医疗假法》规定的法律的权利的过程。 它还审查调查关于工作、家庭责任、残疾和法律的信念如何影响权利的调动过程。 这项研究解决了这些问题：工人了解和行使他们的法律的权利的过程是什么？ 关于工作、家庭责任、残疾和与工人有关的法律的信念如何，关于主张其权利的决定，以及他们对休假冲突的看法？工人如何看待与他们的休假纠纷有关的法律？员工如何看待工作场所关于休假的公平和正义？什么决定了员工对休假纠纷结果的满意度？PI对大约40名员工进行了深入的定性访谈，这些员工在没有上法庭的情况下谈判离职。 这些访谈将有助于填补关于诉讼纠纷的研究与关于未主张其权利的个人的研究之间的差距。

This project addresses the intersection of three areas of law and society research: legal consciousness and rights mobilization, law and competing norms, and law and social change. It examines, in the workplace context, the process through which workers think about and mobilized the legal rights specified in the Family and Medical Leave Act. It also examines investigate how beliefs about work, family commitments, disability and the law influence the process of mobilizing rights. The research addresses these questions: What is the process though which workers learn about and exercise their legal rights? How are beliefs about work, family responsibilities, disability and the law related to workers, decisions about claiming their rights, and their perceptions of conflict over leave? How do workers think about the law in relation to their disputes over leave? How do employees think about fairness and justice in workplace practices regarding leave? What determines employees' satisfaction with the outcomes of leave disputes? The PI conduct in-depth, qualitative interviews with approximately 40 employees who negotiated leaves without going to court. These interviews will contribute to the field by filling the gap between research about litigated disputes and research about individuals who did not assert their rights.