Home > Journals > WMLR > Vol. 66 (2024-2025) > Iss. 3 (2025)
William & Mary Law Review
Abstract
There is a fundamental lack of respect for workers and work. The evisceration of the dignity of work has infected all industries. Anecdotally, workers have been forced to urinate in bottles. Employees have been killed while working through a tornado. A well-known employer allegedly subjected women to jokes of “sex, defecation, masturbation, rape, and torture.” Empirically, studies demonstrate the persistence of gender harassment in employment, the mistreatment of workers with long COVID, and a wide range of child labor and safety violations. No group is immune from the abuse that has been devastating to minority workers and vulnerable populations.
This Article provides a framework to help restore workplace dignity. It proposes the adoption of the “immutable workplace norms” doctrine. Through corporate action, criminalization of employer misconduct, and judicial intervention, this doctrine provides a path to address workplace abuse. The proposal offered here, situated within the existing academic scholarship, will help to restore the much-needed dignity of work.
