3/19/07--Boston College Law Professor Thomas C. Kohler played advisor to a delegation from the Budget Committee of the German Parliament or Bundestag in February on matters concerning labor market regulation, unemployment policy, job security, minimum wage matters, and other social market and labor matters. The delegation also included several high-ranking officials of the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.
 
Kohler, a labor and employment law specialist, met with Waltraud Lehn of the Social Democratic Party, the Chair of the Budget Committee, Hans-Joachim Fuchtel of the Christian Democratic Party, and Gesine Lotzch of the Party of Democratic Socialism, the speakers for their parties on the Committee.  Among other matters, the delegation discussed with Kohler the American experiences with wage and hour legislation and legal protections against unlawful discharge, two matters of considerable controversy in German labor market policy.  In addition to the discussion of wage and hour legislation, the Committee showed considerable interest in the manner in which discrimination legislation functions as discharge protection legislation.
 
During its two days in Boston, the delegation also met with faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University on similar issues, as well as on health policy issues with the Harvard Medical School. The delegation traveled to several other cities, including Washington, D.C., on their fact-finding mission.
 
Aside from labor law, Kohler writes extensively about domestic and comparative employment law issues, mediating institutions, and theories of civil society and personhood. He has been invited to address the Juristentag--the bi-annual German jurists meeting--in 2008, where he will address in comparative perspective matters related to Germany's adoption of employment discrimination legislation.  On March 27, Kohler will hold the 29th annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture at the Chicago-Kent College of Law. The theme of his address will be 'Religion and the Workplace.'