A Crisis Threatens the Dignity of Labor

By Erika Davis

The Law Students on Workers’ Rights series publishes essays from current and incoming students from top law schools across the country. These essays, submitted for the Charles E. Joseph Employment Law Scholarship, address the question “What is the most significant challenge facing workers’ rights, and what role should employment attorneys play in addressing that challenge?”

Behind every paycheck is a story – of sweat, sacrifice, and too often, silence. Today, the most significant challenges facing workers’ rights are a convergence of systemic attacks on labor protections, technological displacement, and the erosion of workplace equity. From mass federal layoffs to the gutting of DEI initiatives, American workers are confronting a multidimensional crisis. Employment attorneys are uniquely positioned to engage this landscape – not only through litigation but by serving as legal interpreters, policy advocates, and guardians of the most basic human right: the dignity of labor.

Interning at Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill’s office, I bore witness to the growing storm. I heard many calls from federal employees, too afraid to give their names but desperate to be heard. Stories of long-serving workers, twenty-five years and more, who were laid off in the name of “fiscal responsibility.” These federal employees were treated as numbers on a spreadsheet rather than their lifelong roles as veterans, postal workers, and case processors. As the government increasingly mimics corporate structure, the soul of public work is compromised. In its wake, the burden of remaining responsibilities is unevenly thrust upon fewer workers, leading to burnout, inefficiency, and an unraveling of workplace morale.

Simultaneously, recent court decisions show how workers’ rights are being chipped away. In Starbucks Corp. v. McKinney (2024), the Supreme Court made it harder for the National Labor Relations Board to quickly step in during unfair labor cases, weakening the ability to protect organizing workers in real-time. In Muldrow v. City of St. Louis (2024), although the Court rightly held that workers don’t have to exemplify “significant” harm to claim discrimination under Title VII, the case exposed how difficult it remains to enforce rights already etched into law.

Similarly, this year, a win for pregnant workers was called into question. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, meant to protect pregnant employees from discrimination, is at risk of being undermined. In February 2025, the Eighth Circuit reversed a lower court’s decision and allowed a challenge from 17 attorneys general to move forward with their lawsuit against the EEOC process of law enforceability. Moments like this remind us that just because a law exists doesn’t mean that the fight is over. Rights can be undone quietly, and it’s up to all of us, not just in court, but in Congress and communities, to keep defending them.

Meanwhile, a quieter crisis looms. As AI reshapes industries and corporations rely more heavily on gig labor, a generation of new graduates is stepping into an increasingly unstable job market. The gig economy is no longer just a side hustle, it’s how millions survive. But without benefits, legal protections, or a safety net, workers are forced to be both employees and entrepreneurs, taking on all the risk while companies reap the reward.

This is the heart of the issue: not just economic exploitation, but the normalization of precarity – a condition where uncertainty is expected, and stability feels out of reach. When that becomes the standard, organizing becomes harder. Even hope starts to feel radical. But it’s in that very space that employment attorneys must rise. They must serve not only as litigators, but as coalition-builders, educators, and policy advocates. In courtrooms, they must challenge unjust terminations and systemic discrimination. In communities, they must educate workers about their rights in accessible language, building trust among the most vulnerable. And in legislatures, they must craft and defend laws that evolve alongside technology and culture.

Legal clinics can serve as vessels for turning confusion into clarity, where law students work alongside community colleges, shelters, and ESL programs to host monthly legal literacy sessions. This empowers undocumented immigrants, foster youth, and gig workers with knowledge of their labor rights, visa protections, and how to recognize coercion. These spaces become not only educational but transformational ways to close the gap between knowledge and action of rights.

Technology, too, should serve justice, not just profits. If it can be utilized to track steps and calories, we can utilize it to track workplace abuse. A trauma-informed reporting app – one that allows users to document harm anonymously and route those reports to trusted NGOs or attorneys – could provide the real-time response we need. Done right, it would protect privacy, prioritize high-risk cases using AI, and connect people to help efficiently.

We are not just fighting for better pay or protection against discrimination, we are fighting for a vision of work that upholds human dignity. Where labor is honored, not exploited. Where no one is invisible. Where no one is disposable. Employment attorneys are the keepers of that promise. But we must also be architects. The constructors of systems that see people fully, that build hope when hope feels far away, and that never forget the stories behind the paycheck.

Reflections from Charles Joseph

Protecting the right to a fair workplace can be a complex process. As Davis reminds us, the fight isn’t over when legislatures pass worker protection laws. Workers only have rights if they can enforce them. 

Employees who understand their discrimination protections still need advocates who can fight for their rights. And escaping a hostile work environment shouldn’t depend on where you live, yet courts across the country interpret constructive discharge differently. In this fight, employment lawyers can make a difference.

Erika Davis holds a bachelor’s in diplomacy and international relations from Seton Hall University. Her experience includes an internship with Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill. Davis will join the Cardozo Law Class of 2028 in the fall. 

Charles Joseph has over two decades of experience as an NYC employment lawyer. He is the founder of Working Now and Then and the founding partner of Joseph and Kirschenbaum, a firm that has recovered over $200 million for clients.