Contract labor

“ Your contracts were explained to you, and their sacredness impressed upon you again and again. You know that when you make a contract you are bound to give all the labor for which your employer agrees to pay. Efforts have been made by my officers to compel you to perform labor according to agreements, that employers might have no excuse for failing to do their part. ”

“ One of the purposes of organizing and collective bargaining is to make a contract by management and the workers. This bill provides that management and labor each shall fairly and honestly live up to the terms of their contract and if either party breaks the contract and the other suffers loss or damage thereby, the party who is at fault must respond in fair and just damages. If the parties do not intend to live up to their contract, why should they take the time, trouble, and incur expense of making a contract? ”

“ Many labor leaders are again asking for an effectual control of the labor contract, not by the action of trade unions, but by the direct legislation of the state. What shall be our attitude to this demand? Before we can fairly answer this question we must consider somewhat more fully the character of the bargain that takes place between an employer and an individual workman, and the nature of the commodity that the laborer has to sell. ”

“ Employers and employed make contracts on the best terms which they can agree upon, like buyers and sellers, renters and hirers, borrowers and lenders. Their relations are, therefore, controlled by the universal law of supply and demand. The employer assumes the direction of the business, and takes all the risk, for the capital must be consumed in the industrial process, and whether it will be found again in the product or not depends upon the good judgment and foresight with which the capital and labor have been applied. Under the wages system the employer and the employé contract for time. ”

“ In theory the labor contract is a perfectly free contract, entered into voluntarily by both employer and wage-earner, and the courts have generally insisted that this theoretical freedom must be maintained. ”

“ The employer of labor signs up a number of men and the men ask for, expect and receive an advance of money against their future services of an amount equal to from two to four months’ wages. There is a form of contract signed in which the laborer acknowledges the receipt of so much money paid him for future work to be done by him under the contract, by which he also agrees to work for the employer for a specified time at the rate of so much per month. ”

“ He holds that under present conditions the laborer is usually at a disadvantage in making a labor contract, since his very life depends on his finding work, and that thus the employer often grasps an unduly large share of the product. ”

“ Require any bidder, offeror, contractor or subcontractor to enter into, adhere to, or enforce any agreement that requires its employees, as a condition of employment, to: (i) become members of or affiliated with a labor organization; or (ii) pay dues or fees to a labor organization, over an employee's objection, in excess of the employee's share of labor organization costs relating to collective bargaining, contract administration, or grievance adjustment. ”

“ Contract in labor law is a term the implications of which must be determined from the connection in which it appears. Collective bargaining between employer and the representatives of a unit, usually a union, results in an accord as to terms which will overn hiring and work and pay in that unit. The result is not, however, a contract of employment except in rare cases; no one has a job by reason of it and no obligation to any individual ordinarily comes into existence from it alone. ”

“ I hazarded, feeling that he had delivered himself into my hands. "Every man has a right to labor at whatever work and for whatever prices he pleases," I said; "that you will admit is fundamental?"
"Provided you allow me to define what you mean—provided it does not injure his neighbor. You, as a lawyer, quote your Sic utere tuo ut non."
"If the laborer and his employer contract, no one else has a right to interfere." ”

“ The workingmen found out, a good while ago, that the only possible way of preserving and enforcing their right of contract in the sale of their labor was by uniting together and insisting on collective bargaining with their employers. ”

“ Few employers and few of those in their employ have very definite ideas as to the implied agreements which legally attach to the ordinary verbal contract to work for so many dollars a week, and still fewer have any definite ideas as to how the law might be improved. The anonymous writer of this book gives much valuable information as to the present status of the labor contract, and he advocates certain legal reforms the discussion of which can not fail to do good. ”

“ One journeyman shall be kept for each three apprentices; disputes are to be settled by the justices of the peace, and indeed the whole labor contract is regulated as carefully as the most statute-mad of modern labor leaders could desire, though hardly, perhaps, then, in the sole interest of the workingman. ”

“ Article 16 A labor contract shall become effective when the employing unit and the worker reach agreement through consultation thereon and both parties sign or affix their seals on the copies of the contract. ”

“ We know of nothing to prevent the employee's, because he is an employee, making any contract provided it is not inconsistent with a collective agreement or does not amount to or result from or is not part of an unfair labor practice. But in so doing the employer may not incidentally exact or obtain any diminution of his own obligation or any increase of those of employees in the matters covered by collective agreement. ”

“ Article 51 The employees of an enterprise as one party and the employing unit as the another may, through negotiation on an equal basis, conclude a collective contract on matters relating to labor remuneration, working hours, rest and vocation, occupational safety and health, insurance, welfare benefits, etc. The draft collective contract shall be submitted to the worker's congress or to all the employees for discussion and adoption. ”

“ Care has been taken in the opinions of the Court to reserve a field for the individual contract, even in industries covered by the National Labor Relations Act, not merely as an act or evidence of hiring, but also in the sense of a completely individually bargained contract setting out terms of employment, because there are circumstances in which it may legally be used, in fact, in which there is no alternative. ”

“ Article 8 When an employing unit recruits a worker, it shall truthfully inform him of the job description, the working conditions, the place of work, occupational hazards, conditions for work safety, labor remuneration and other matters which the worker requests to be informed of. The employing unit has the right to acquire the basic information of the worker which is directly related to the labor contract, and the worker shall truthfully provide the same. ”

“ This is the general custom in those countries and with the class of labor available is the only way in which the employer can be reasonably certain of securing and retaining his laborers, as the law forces the mozo to live up to his contract and also makes him secure in obtaining his money after he has worked out the amount advanced. ”

“ In general, labor legislation is justified against the charge that it violates liberty of contract on the ground that the economic resources of the parties to the arrangement are so disparate that the conditions of a genuine contract are absent; action by the state is introduced to form a level on which bargaining takes place. ”

“ Article 94 Where an individual that contracts for the operation of a business recruits workers in violation of the provisions of this Law, thus causing losses to the workers, the organization giving out the contract and the individual contractor shall bear joint and several liability for compensation. ”

“ Agencies shall ensure that, for contracts subject to section 2 of this order, provisions in solicitations and clauses in contracts shall provide that, in each pay period, contractors provide all individuals performing work under the contract for whom they are required to maintain wage records under the Fair Labor Standards Act ”

“ A provision that obligates the contractor to cooperate fully in providing reasonable access to the contractor's records, documents, persons, or premises if reasonably requested by authorized officials of the contracting agency, the Department of the Treasury, or the Department of Justice, for the purpose of determining whether forced or indentured child labor was used to mine, produce, or manufacture any product furnished under the contract. ”

“ The enterprise changes its line of production, introduces a major technological updating or adjusts its business method, and, after modification of the labor contracts, still needs to reduce its personnel ”

“ In addition to the requisite terms mentioned above, an employing unit and a worker may agree to have other matters stipulated in the labor contract, such as probation period, training, confidentiality, supplementary insurance and welfare benefits. ”

“ The article, in substance, provided that no change or modification 'involving an alteration in the specifications as to character, quantity, and quality, whether of labor or material, as would either increase or diminish the cost of the work,' should be made unless 'agreed upon in writing by the contracting parties, the agreement setting forth fully the reasons for such change, and giving clearly the quantities and price both of material and labor thus substituted for those specified in the original contract,' etc. ”

“ One of the most experienced students of labor law has warned against the dangers of such an approach:
'The ease with which one can show that collective bargaining agreements have characteristics which preclude the application of some of the familiar principles of contracts and agency creates the danger that those who are knowledgeable about collective bargaining will demand that we discard all the precepts of contract law and create a new law of collective bargaining agreements. ”

“ For the purposes of this section, to bargain collectively is the performance of the mutual obligation of the employer and the representative of the employees to meet at reasonable times and confer in good faith with respect to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment, or the negotiation of an agreement, or any question arising thereunder, and the execution of a written contract incorporating any agreement reached if requested by either party, but such obligation does not compel either party to agree to a proposal or require the making of a concession * * *.' 61 Stat. ”

“ Progress in civilization has everywhere meant a limitation and regulation of contract. I call your especial attention to the bulletin of the Bureau of Labor which gives a statement of the methods of treating the unemployed in European countries, as this is a subject which in Germany, for instance, is treated in connection with making provision for worn-out and crippled workmen. ”

“ Carver, Chief Justice EYRE said: 'Now a case may be stated in which it is the clear sense of the parties to the contract that they shall not be partners; that A. is to contribute neither labor nor money ”

“ The contractor will send to each labor union or representative of workers with which he has a collective bargaining agreement or other contract or understanding, a notice, to be provided by the agency contracting officer, advising the labor union or workers' representative of the contractor's commitments under Section 202 of Executive Order No. ”

“ So if one person engages to work and render services which require great outlay of money, time, and trouble, and he is only to be paid according to the work he performs, the contract necessarily implies an obligation on the part of the employer to supply the work. ”

“ If I commission a work from a man, ordering a work specially for my purposes, and I pay for it, what difference does it make whether I put him under an employment contract or establish an independent contractor relationship? ”

“ I have shown the contractor, at the birth of industry, negotiating on equal terms with his comrades, who have since become HIS WORKMEN. It is plain, in fact, that this original equality was bound to disappear through the advantageous position of the master and the dependence of the wage-workers. In vain does the law assure to each the right of enterprise, as well as the faculty to labor alone and sell one's products directly. According to the hypothesis, this last resource is impracticable, since it was the object of the workshop to annihilate isolated labor. ”

“ Two more enactments deal with the earnings of the workmen of contractors and sub-contractors, make them a first charge on all contract money, give workers employed on works of construction a lien thereon, and compel a contractor's employer to hold back at least one-fourth of the contract money for a month after the completion of a contract, unless he shall be satisfied that all workmen concerned have been paid in full. A Wages Attachment Act limits without entirely abolishing a creditor's right to obtain orders of court attaching forthcoming earnings. ”

“ At that time ordinary laborers under the same government received but $1.75 per day at the same place, and those engaged in the same department with the claimant in a private establishment, at the same place, received but $2 for a day's work of twelve hours, and the finding adds, 'they had more work to do than the claimant had while similarly employed.' The claimant's contract was a voluntary and a reasonable one, by which he must now be bound. ”