Campaign Action
When Neil Gorsuch of the stolen Supreme Court seat upheld forced arbitration in his Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis decision on Monday, he essentially gave employers a free pass on labor laws. All of them. The decision says that employers can prevent workers from taking them to court for breaking the law, instead forcing the workers secret proceedings that are stacked against them and—if they somehow win—don’t set future legal precedents. How stacked against workers?
In 2015, Colvin found that employees win 21 percent of arbitration cases, compared to 57 percent of cases in state court. (Employees are far less likely to pursue grievances when they’re subject to arbitration: Colvin estimates that workers are 50 times likelier to sue than to arbitrate.) Workers also get less money when they’re successful: $109,000 in arbitration compared to $575,000 in state court. Colvin says lawyers he speaks with are less likely to represent workers bound by arbitration because they take a share of the damages.
So your employer doesn’t pay you overtime you’ve earned. First you can’t find a lawyer who’ll represent you, then you’re less than half as likely to win as you would be in court, and if you do win, you don’t get the money you’d get in court.
This isn’t a fringe question. More than 55 percent of private sector non-union workers are already subject to forced arbitration, whether they know it or not, and that number is sure to rise thanks to Gorsuch’s deciding vote. The same judge who said a trucker had the choice between freezing to death or being fired has just given your boss permission to deny you justice.