The Effectiveness of Reinstatement as a Public Policy Remedy: The Kohler Case
No Access Until
Permanent Link(s)
Other Titles
Author(s)
Abstract
This article is concerned with two aspects of the NLRB reinstatement remedy as applied in the famous Kohler case: (1) how effective the remedy was, particularly in terms of the number of employees who returned to Kohler under its protection, and (2) what factors, in order of significance, affected a worker's decision to return. The authors find the remedy was effective, since about 40 percent of those workers who received reinstatement offers accepted them. Regression and discriminant analyses of the variables affecting the decision to return confirm the thinking of labor market economists that the most disadvantaged worker (lower paid, older, less educated, less skilled, married, with children and with a nonworking wife) was most likely to return to a Kohler job. Recommendations are offered for improving the efficacy of the reinstatement remedy, with emphasis on adding a penalty cost to its back-pay feature.