More companies thwart employee class actions in arbitration agreements
More companies are requiring employees to arbitrate serious complaints and barring them from bringing class actions after a 2011 Supreme Court decision upholding a ban on class actions in consumer disputes.
The result, lawyers tell the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.), is a drop in class action suits accusing corporations of wage, theft, discrimination and other labor law violations.
The story refers to a study (PDF) by Carlton Fields Jorden Burt that found labor and employment accounted for 23 percent of class action matters in 2014, down from 28 percent in 2011. Worker class actions cost companies $462.8 million in 2014, down from $598.9 million in 2011, according to the Wall Street Journal account.
Class action supporters point to rulings by the National Labor Relations Board that class-action waivers violate the National Labor Relations Act. Federal appeals courts, however, have refused to uphold the NLRB decisions.
