Bills moving forward to end forced arbitration on sexual harassment

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gounion
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Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2021 4:59 pm

Bills moving forward to end forced arbitration on sexual harassment

Post by gounion »

Good news:
Current and former employees of the technology company Afiniti, the broadcaster CBS and the luxury giant LVMH shared accounts of sexual abuse, rape and harassment with a congressional committee on Tuesday, experiences they said they had been required to keep quiet because they had signed contracts with “forced arbitration” clauses.

The testimony, which implicated executives at the companies, came as the House Judiciary Committee was considering legislation that would abolish forced arbitration for victims of sexual assault and harassment. Forced arbitration often requires an employee to go through a private proceeding with his or her employer after bringing an accusation of workplace misconduct, according to legislators.

Although arbitration clauses do not prevent employees from going to the police in the event of a serious crime, companies often make signing them a condition of keeping or getting a job. Paired with confidentiality clauses, they can have a chilling effect on reporting misconduct.

*snip*

The legislation, which was introduced by Representative Cheri Bustos, Democrat of Illinois, and Representative Morgan Griffith, Republican of Virginia, has bipartisan support and would end forced arbitration for survivors of sexual assault and sexual harassment.

An identical version of the bill was recently passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The House committee is scheduled to vote on the legislation on Wednesday. If it passes, it will go before the House for a full vote.
While there is some bi-paritsan support, the GOP will likely do everything in it's power to scuttle it, well, just because.

But the person that has pushed this the most is former Fox News Host Gretchen Carlson, who was harassed by Roger Ailes, then head of Fox News. Gotta give her some credit for that.

Forced arbitration needs to go - PERIOD. It does not work, because the companies control the whole process, and the arbiters are in their back pocket 99% of the time. It's a kangaroo court.
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