Two recently released survey reports measure the pervasive use of arbitration to resolve workplace disputes.<\/p>\n
Alexander J.S. Colvin of the Economic Policy Institute<\/a> in Washington, D.C., has concluded that, “since the early 2000, the share of workers subject to mandatory arbitration has more than doubled and now exceeds 55 percent.”\u00a0 Key findings of Colvin’s study include:<\/p>\n A second study was released by Prof. Imre S. Szalai<\/a> of Loyola University New Orleans School of Law and published by the Employee Rights Advocacy Institute for Law & Policy.\u00a0 Prof. Szalai examines the use of arbitration agreements in the workplace by the top 100 largest domestic United States companies.\u00a0 Key findings include:<\/p>\n Both studies conclude that these trends are adverse to employees.\u00a0 The Colvin study states that “mandatory arbitration is a growing threat to workers’ rights,” and the Szalai report states, among other things, that “[t]he widespread use of forced arbitration threatens to undermine public confidence and trust in the American justice system.”<\/p>\n These studies’ empirical data are compelling and a necessary and valuable contribution to any fact-based policy discussion.\u00a0 Their conclusions seem less reliable.\u00a0 Both researchers seem to assume that arbitration lacks due-process guarantees of procedural fairness;<\/a> that arbitration is not as accessible as public courts; and that our institutions of public justice are capable of absorbing all off the employment claims now being handled in arbitration.\u00a0 They also assume without support that employees’ interests are better served in court than in confidential arbitration (assuming that procedural fairness is observed and that employment arbitration is faster and less expensive than employment litigation).\u00a0 These issues are among those that need to be empirically studied before policy conclusions can be reached with the confidence and clarity that these reports reflect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Measuring employers’ use of mandatory arbitration<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,21],"tags":[20,33],"class_list":["post-1970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arbitration","category-employment","tag-arbitration","tag-public-policy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n
\n