COVID and Liability

COVID and Liability

In the news, there has been a lot of discussion concerning the potential liability a company may face upon reopening during the pandemic. One solution is providing immunity to business from lawsuits related to employees becoming sick (or even dying) from contracting the sickness during the course of work.

During the term, we have discussed working conditions within the context of labor law and employment. For your final exam, you must first explore the overall argument concerning liability due to injury and death prior to COVID (2020). Topics might include industrial accidents, OSHA, as well as how liability on the employee and the employer may have shifted historically. You must also provide a broad overview of how unions and employers handle topics like employee safety. After researching and writing about those (and possibly other) topics, you must argue in favor of, or in opposition, of business immunity from COVID-related lawsuits. Be sure to address if you believe immunity would impact union (as well as) employment laws and contracts.

Your argument must discuss specific examples and provide citations. You must cite newspaper articles (or journal articles), as well as utilize material we have discussed in class and/or the textbook.

You can rely on much of the research and work done with the discussion board posts. But, copy and pasting from the discussion boards will not be accepted.

The paper is expected to be a minimum of 4-pages long, typed (although, given the topic it is reasonable to expect many more pages). The grade, however, is not dependent on length, nor are they dependent on the answer. Grades will be based on how well the argument is made. It is worth 75 points.