Companies' long-held practice of forcing workers to take disputes with their employers to arbitration instead of suing got a new, broad challenge Thursday, this time from U.S. lawmakers.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., introduced legislation that would end mandatory arbitration clauses nationwide.
Called the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act, the legislation touches the center of an ongoing debate in the technology industry. A wave of activism rippling through tech companies' workforces has made employers confront and, in some cases, change their policies on mandatory arbitration. Most notably, as a result of pressure from Google employees _ tens of thousands of whom walked off the job in November in protest of executive misconduct _ the Alphabet Inc.-owned search giant announced last week that, starting March 21, it would no longer require its employees to waive their right to bring disputes against it to court.
Google is unusual in that it is doing away with forced arbitration for employees under all circumstances. Last year, Microsoft Corp., Uber, Lyft and Facebook Inc. announced that they would let employees with sexual misconduct complaints pursue their cases in court. But for disputes on other topics, those companies' ban on lawsuits remains.
"We watched as some companies tried to create policies in a surgical fashion, carving only a narrow category of cases where justice might be received," Tanuja Gupta, a Google employee who was one of the organizers of the November walkout, said at a news conference introducing the bill Thursday. "But workers continued to beat the drum of intersectionality and highlight the root cause of all inequity: the structural imbalances of power. And slowly, some companies started to relent, rolling out blanket policies that eliminated forced arbitration."
The FAIR Act would not ban arbitration entirely. It would just prohibit companies from requiring employees, as a condition of employment, to waive their rights to sue.
In California, recent attempts to pass a similar law have failed. Last year, the California Chamber of Commerce put such a measure on its annual list of "job killers," arguing that it would open companies to lawsuits that would discourage them from hiring new employees. The bill passed the Legislature, but Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed it, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld mandatory arbitration clauses.
On Thursday, Blumenthal and other lawmakers commended the companies that have stepped back from forced arbitration but said a nationwide measure like the FAIR Act is needed.
While House representatives and Blumenthal commended the companies that have acted to end forced arbitration _ which includes Vox Media as of this week. They maintained that it was necessary to a pass nationwide measure like the FAIR Act, which has 140 co-sponsors at introduction.
"We're not willing to wait for corporate America to do the right thing," Blumenthal told reporters Thursday. "This kind of injustice has to end for the sake of everyone in the workplace, men and women."
A new poll of 1,200 voters by Hart Research Associates found that 84 percent supported legislation to end arbitration requirements. Close to 90 percent of Republicans and 83 percent of Democrats supported the bill and most preferred to have their own disputes heard in court, the survey found.
