Today, in a 5-4 decision written by Judge Gorsuch, the Supreme Court held in Epic Systems v. Lewis that employers may use forced arbitration to circumvent workers’ rights to band together to hold employers accountable for wage theft and other misconduct.
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) released the following statement in response to the decision:
“I agree with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg that the Supreme Court’s decision to eviscerate the fundamental rights of working people is ‘egregiously wrong.’
“When Congress establishes rights by law, it expects that working people will be able to enforce those rights in court. It does not expect a closed system that shields corporate misconduct from scrutiny and accountability. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) guarantees workers the ‘full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their choosing,’ while clearly providing for the enforcement of these rights on a collective basis.
“Until now, the Supreme Court shared this view. For decades, the Court held that workers had a fundamental right to band together to seek collective relief against unscrupulous employers. But in spite of the plain language and legislative intent of the NLRA and the Federal Arbitration Act, the conservative wing of the Court has now warped arbitration into a cudgel against hardworking Americans that deprives them of the right to seek collective relief.
“Congress must act to correct this terrible decision by ending forced arbitration.”
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