Our friends at American Workplace Prof blog made me aware of a series of animated shorts prepared by an American labor lawyer dealing with workplace law cases in that the United States. The website is called LaborRelated, and here it is.
On the blog, you can see the video and an explanation of the actual case the decision is based on. The “facts” in the clip are not identical to the facts in the real case, as is made clear by hilarious bit on a case called Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics. That case deals with an employer who places the punch clock far from the workers, so the workers waste most of the break time walking to and from the punch clock. When an employee threatens to file a complaint, the employer fires the person. In the clip, the employee is in a cage hanging over a fire pit.
Here is the link to all of the You Tube videos done by the LaborRelated channel.
The idea of using funny animation to teach students about workplace law is one that I have been thinking about for a while. I have made some animated bits myself using Second Life and a Virtual Professor Doorey. In my Employment Law course, I run a virtual business that plans weddings, but my damned employees are so much work that problems arise constantly. I use the videos to provoke discussion about the issues.
Here are few samples from my virtual business:
The Hiring Process
Can I refuse to hire a server whose red hair I don’t like?
Dismissing an Employee
Can I dismiss an employee to create a vacancy for a relative?
Disciplining an Employee for Lateness
Can I suspend a nonunion employee without pay for being late? Check out how I can fly, and hide in the trees to spy on employees. Bet my HRM students would like to have that skill!
What do you think of my movie making skills? I’d like to do more of these, and make them better, but time is an issue. Maybe this would be a good project for some York or Seneca College computer students. Hmmm.
Animation as a Workplace Law Educational Tool?
