The entire structure of the Supreme Court’s modern jurisprudence on arbitration agreements and class-action waivers is built on the idea that it is proper, appropriate and preferred for those in power to force others to waive their rights. But it wasn’t always this way. In 1925, Congress passed the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), which sought to address the animosity some judges had towards arbitration, by requiring judges to treat arbitration agreements like other contracts. A 2015 Economic Policy Institute report describes the FAA as something that was originally intended to be applied “to a narrow set of cases—commercial cases involving federal law that were brought in federal courts on an independent federal ground.” In essence, the FAA was designed so that businesses that negotiate contracts with each other can choose have their claims heard by an arbitrator of their choosing. “But,” the report explains, “in the 1980s, the U.S. Supreme Court turned the FAA upside-down through a series of surprising decisions. These decisions set in motion a major overhaul of the civil justice system. It is no exaggeration to call the Supreme Court’s arbitration decisions in the 1980s the hidden revolution of the Reagan Court.”
In These Times
May 24, 2018
The ruling on the case means that employees who must sign arbitration agreements as a condition of their employment will not be able to participate in class-action lawsuits. Now, employers can effectively ban class-action lawsuits by forcing employees to sign one of these agreements in order to get a job. According to a 2017 report from the Economic Policy Institute, there are close to 25 million workers who had to sign arbitration agreements.
Brit + Co
May 24, 2018
According to the Economic Policy Institute, some 60 million nonunionized private-sector employees work under agreements that preclude them from suing their employers over workplace disputes. Arbitration can be a useful way of resolving a conflict without the expense and time investment of going through the courts. But arbitration agreements are fair only if the two sides entering into them do so willingly and on equal footing. If employers routinely force applicants to sign away the right to sue in order to get hired, then the two sides are clearly not entering arbitration willingly or as equals. And studies have found that workers win arbitration cases at lower rates than they do court cases.
Los Angeles Times
May 23, 2018
A 2018 study by the Economic Policy Institute found that more than half of private, non-union employees — some 60 million workers — are subject to mandatory employment arbitration procedures. That means if you signed something that says you agree to mandatory arbitration if you have an issue with your company, you cannot bring a class action lawsuit against your company with your colleagues.
Refinery29
May 23, 2018
Companies are increasingly requiring employees to agree to forced arbitration as a condition of employment. A recent study by Cynthia Estlund at the Economic Policy Institute showed that 56 percent of non-unionized private sector employees — that’s 60.1 million American workers — are currently subject to forced arbitration.
ACLU
May 23, 2018
Mandatory arbitration agreements often prevent workers from coming together to file lawsuits against employers under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Civil Rights Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act and other laws meant to protect workers, according to Celine McNicholas, director of labor law and policy at the Economic Policy Institute. Instead, workers are forced to air their grievances individually in arbitration processes set up as alternatives to courtroom disputes. Pro-labor groups say arbitration often favors employers, particularly when unions are not involved. Lawyers also tend to be less interested in representing workers taking up small claims on their own than a class-action case that could secure significant damages. “This means that a worker who is not paid fairly, discriminated against, or sexually harassed, is forced into a process that overwhelmingly favors the employer — and forced to manage this process alone, even though these issues are rarely confined to one single worker,” McNicholas said in a statement. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that more than half of all nonunion workers in the United States have signed mandatory arbitration agreements, and Monday’s ruling could affect nearly 25 million workers nationwide.
Truth-Out
May 23, 2018
Mandatory arbitration agreements have become increasingly common, and research from the Economic Policy Institute shows that over 55 percent of all workers are subject to mandatory arbitration requirements and 30 percent of employers that require mandatory arbitration also include class action waivers.
Congressman Bobby Scott
May 23, 2018
A 2017 study by the Economic Policy Institute estimated that 56% of nonunion private-sector employees in the U.S., about 60 million workers, are subject to mandatory arbitration procedures, and 23%, almost 25 million workers, are barred from joining class-action suits. Less than 10% of employers requiredarbitration in the 1990s, it added.
Labor Press
May 23, 2018
Employees are far less likely to win their cases in mandatory arbitration than in the courts, according to a report by the labor-friendly Economic Policy Institute.
New York Daily News
May 23, 2018
According to the Economic Policy Institute, mandatory arbitration prevents nearly 30 million women from suing their employers over harassment. Attorney Debra Katz says,
National Organization for Women
May 23, 2018