Employer Rights Against Worker Involuntary Servitude
28 Pages Posted: 4 Nov 2019 Last revised: 7 Jul 2020
Date Written: June 8, 2020
Abstract
This paper argues that employers can sometimes validly challenge laws as violating the Thirteenth Amendment’s Involuntary Servitude Clause. Judges currently read that clause to bar some kinds of physical or legal coercion against workers who would otherwise quit their current employer. This paper identifies how existing Involuntary Servitude Clause doctrine can be extended to bar legal coercion against prospective employers who would otherwise hire those workers after they quit. If so extended, the Involuntary Servitude Clause sets a minimum level of labor mobility in the United States. To illustrate, the paper discusses how employers can use the Involuntary Servitude Clause to challenge (1) labor mobility restrictions on H-2 foreign guest workers, and (2) non-competition clauses in labor contracts.
Keywords: Thirteenth Amendment, involuntary servitude, labor mobility, immigration
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation