Document Type
Student Note
Abstract
In 1901, West Virginia guaranteed that women working outside the home would have a place to sit down at their workplace. In 2023, despite that law, no worker in West Virginia is functionally required to be given a chair. This Note explores the use of seating laws to prevent the modern and historic workplace issue of prolonged standing, or when an employee is required to stand in one place for too long at one time. Prolonged standing in the workplace is an ergonomics problem, a medical concern, and a labor issue. The pain, discomfort, and long-term chronic disease caused by prolonged standing are all preventable, too—it just requires someone to have a chair to sit down while on the job, and to rest their feet for at least some short periods of time. Around a century ago, nearly all states, including West Virginia, sought to prevent prolonged standing in the workplace, and did so by enacting seating laws that protected female employees, who were considered to experience the most deleterious effects of prolonged standing. These and other laws governing ergonomics formed the framework for guaranteeing what is referred to as “the right to sit.” Unfortunately, many of these protections are not currently in effect, and many workers continue to be subjected to prolonged standing in the workplace regardless of what the law requires. This Note discusses the history of seating laws, the specific law in West Virginia, its non-enforcement, and its path to revival. This Note argues that West Virginia’s female-only seating law could be resurrected and expanded to include all people, and advocates for policy changes to codify robust workplace seating protections in West Virginia and across the United States.
Recommended Citation
Leif Olson,
The Right to Sit in West Virginia,
126
W. Va. L. Rev.
757
(2024).
Available at:
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/wvlr/vol126/iss2/12