a form of insurance that provides wage replacement and medical benefits for employees who are injured in the course of employment, in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her employer for the tort of negligence.

• governs labor relations in the railroad and airline industries. The Act, passed in 1926 and amended in 1934 and 1936, seeks to substitute bargaining, arbitration and mediationfor strikes as a means of resolving labor disputes.

• limits the means with which employers may react to workers in the private sector who create labor unions, (also known as trade unions) engage in collective bargaining, and take part in strikes and other forms of concerted activity in support of their demands. The Act does not apply to workers who are covered by the Railway Labor Act, agricultural employees, domestic employees, supervisors, federal, state or local government workers, independent contractors and some close relatives of individual employers.

Prohibits 5 unfair labor practices:

1. Interfering with, restraining or coercing employees in their rights under Section 7. These rights include freedom of association, mutual aid or protection, self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively for wages and working conditions through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other protected concerted activities with or without a union. Section 8(a)(1)
2. "Dominating" or interfering with the formation or administration of any labor organization . Section 8(a)(2)
3. Discriminating against employees to encourage or discourage acts of support for a labor organization. 8(a)(3)
4. Discriminating against employees who file charges or testify. 8(a)(4)
5. Refusing to bargain collectively with the representative of the employer's employees. 8(a)(5)

• The Act provided benefits to retirees and the unemployed, and a lump-sum benefit at death.
• Payments to current retirees are financed by a payroll tax on current workers' wages, half directly as a payroll tax and half paid by the employer.
• The act also gave money to states to provide assistance to aged individuals (Title I), for unemployment insurance (Title III), Aid to Families with Dependent Children (Title IV), Maternal and Child Welfare (Title V), public health services (Title VI), and the blind (Title X).^[12]

• established a national minimum wage,^[3] guaranteed 'time-and-a-half' for overtime in certain jobs,^[4] and prohibited most employment of minors in "oppressive child labor," a term that is defined in the statute.^[5]
•  It applies to employees engaged in interstate commerce or employed by an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce,^[6] unless the employer can claim an exemption from coverage.

• United States federal law that monitors the activities and power of labor unions.
• Amended NLRA
• added a list of prohibited actions, or "unfair labor practices", on the part of unions to the NLRB, which had previously only prohibited "unfair labor practices" committed by employers.
• prohibited jurisdictional strikes, wildcat strikes, solidarity or political strikes, secondary boycotts, secondary and mass picketing, closed shops, and monetary donations by unions to federal political campaigns.
• required union officers to sign non-communist affidavits with the government.
• Union shops were heavily restricted, and states were allowed to pass "right-to-work laws" that outlawed union shops.
• executive branch of the Federal government could obtain legal strikebreaking injunctions if an impending or current strike "imperiled the national health or safety," a test that has been interpreted broadly by the courts.

• regulates labor unions' internal affairs and their officials' relationships with employers.

Important provisions of the law:

• Unions had to hold secret elections, reviewable by the Department of Labor.
• Union members are protected against abuses by a bill of rights that includes guarantees of freedom of speech and periodic secret elections of officers.
• Bar members of the Communist Party and convicted felons from holding union office.
• Require unions to submit annual financial reports to the DOL.
• Declare that every union officer must act as a fiduciary in handling the assets and conducting the affairs of the union.
• Limit the power of unions to put subordinate bodies in trusteeship, a temporary suspension of democratic processes within a union.
• Provide certain minimum standards before a union may expel or take other disciplinary action against a member of the union.

• Amended Fair Labor Standards Act
• Aimed at eliminating sex discrimination

• outlawed major forms of discrimination against blacks and women, including racial segregation.
• It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public

• Kennedy established the right of federal workers to engage in collective bargaining.
• Consequently, union membership among U.S. government employees soared from 13 percent in 1961 to 60 percent in the 1974

• forbids employment discrimination against anyone over the age of 40 years in the United States

The ADEA includes a broad ban against age discrimination and also specifically prohibits:

• Discrimination in hiring, promotions, wages, or termination of employment and layoffs.
• Statements or specifications in job notices or advertisements of age preference and limitations.
• Denial of benefits to older employees. An employer may reduce benefits based on age only if the cost of providing the reduced benefits to older workers is the same as the cost of providing full benefits to younger workers.
• Since 1978 it has prohibited mandatory retirement in most sectors, with phased elimination of mandatory retirement for tenured workers, such as college professors, in 1993.

Mandatory retirement based on age is permitted for:

• Executives over age 65 in high policy-making positions who are entitled to a pension over a minimum yearly amount.

• governs occupational health and safety in the private sector and federal government in the United States.
• main goal is to ensure that employers provide employees with an environment free from recognized hazards, such as exposure to toxic chemicals, excessive noise levels, mechanical dangers, heat or cold stress, or unsanitary conditions.

• prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs conducted by Federal agencies, in programs receiving Federal financial assistance, in Federal employment, and in the employment practices of Federal contractors.

• establishes minimum standards for pension plans in private industry and provides for extensive rules on the federal income tax effects of transactions associated with employee benefit plans.

ERISA was enacted to protect the interests of employee benefit plan participants and their beneficiaries by:

• Requiring the disclosure of financial and other information concerning the plan to beneficiaries;
• Establishing standards of conduct for plan fiduciaries;
• Providing for appropriate remedies and access to the federal courts.

• modified Title VII
• requires employers to treat pregnant women the same as all other employees.
• enables a woman to take 4 months of pregnancy leave, even if she is a new employee, and even if she does not work full time.

• abolished the U.S. Civil Service Commission
• distributes its functions primarily among three agencies: the newly established Office of Personnel Management, the Merit Systems Protection Board, and the Federal Labor Relations Authority.

• mandates an insurance program giving some employees the ability to continue health insurance coverage after leaving employment
• best known for Title X, which amends the Internal Revenue Code and the Public Health Service Act to deny income tax deductions to employers (generally those with 20 or more full time equivalent employees) for contributions to a group health plan unless such plan meets certain continuing coverage requirements.
• The violation for failing to meet those criteria was subsequently changed to an excise tax.

• required employers to attest to their employees' immigration status.
• made it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit unauthorized immigrants.
• granted amnesty to certain seasonal agricultural illegal immigrants.
• granted amnesty to illegal immigrants who entered the United States before January 1, 1982 and had resided there continuously.

• prevents employers from using polygraph ("lie detector") tests, either for pre-employment screening or during the course of employment, with certain exemptions.

• protects employees, their families, and communities by requiring most employers with 100 or more employees to provide sixty- (60) calendar-day advance notification of plant closings and mass layoffs of employees
• requires that notice also be given to employees' representatives (i.e. a labor union), the local chief elected official (i.e. the mayor), and the state dislocated worker unit.