One of the strongest trends in human resource management is the dramatic increase in the use of mandatory employment arbitration agreements. In late 2017, a study by the Survey Research Institute at Cornell University determined that the number of private sector, non-union employees subject to mandatory arbitration agreements had dramatically increased in recent years. The study was conducted on a national level and secured responses from more than seven hundred employers. Between 1992 and the early 2000’s, the percentage of employees subject to mandatory arbitration agreements had risen from just over two percent to almost one quarter of the U.S. work force. The study concluded that as of the fall of 2017, the percentage of private sector, non-union employees subject to mandatory arbitration had more than doubled and now exceeded fifty-five percent. Thus, over sixty million American employees are now likely subject to mandatory employment arbitration agreements.
This dramatic growth preceded the landmark decision handed down in May, 2018 by the U.S. Supreme Court in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis. In this decision, the Supreme Court held that under the Federal Arbitration Act, an arbitration agreement that provides that an employee waives the right to bring a class action in court must be enforced. This decision is widely expected to increase even further the use of mandatory arbitration agreements by private sector employers. The decision put to rest a potential stumbling block to the enforcement of class action waivers in arbitration agreements that had been created by a decision of the National Labor Relations Board during the Obama administration and by the decisions of several federal Courts of Appeals. Thus, the Supreme Court has made the use of such agreements even more desirable by employers who now can generally be assured that their employees cannot bring class action arbitration or court cases against them. In other words, such agreements are now an even more effective means for employers to cope with the rapid increase in recent years in the numbers, costs and risks posed by employment-related lawsuits.
The advantages that the use of mandatory arbitration agreements offer private sector employers are several and are quite substantial:
- Generally speaking, these agreements can be used to prohibit covered employees from bringing class actions against their employers
- These agreements can require employees to waive their right to a jury trial; indeed, this has long been the principal advantage of the use of mandatory arbitration agreements
- Instead, these agreements typically establish a procedure that permits employers and employees to select a decision maker from a panel of experienced former judges and/or licensed attorneys or other respected neutrals to hear and decide their cases, rather than juries
- Because these procedures remove the risk of runaway jury awards and reduce the cost of litigation, employers are much more likely to be in a position of declining to agree to unreasonable settlement demands in cases that they believe involve meritless claims
- Indeed, some studies indicate that employers are somewhat more likely to prevail in arbitration than in court proceedings
- At the very least, and as alluded to above, the use of arbitration agreements will enable employers and employees to resolve their claims in a less costly manner than in courts; typically such agreements involve limited amounts of discovery and fewer procedural disputes
- Claims are typically more quickly resolved in arbitration than in courts; faster resolutions benefit both employers and employees – they both avoid the years of discovery and delay that often characterize court proceedings
- Conventional wisdom and some anecdotal evidence indicate that some plaintiffs’ attorneys are deterred from even pursuing employment-related claims once they become aware that doing so will involve arbitration rather than a potential jury trial
- As opposed to court trials that are matters of public record and sometimes involve considerable publicity, arbitration procedures are private processes and are not as likely to result in the damage to goodwill, reputation and brand as may public trials
- While arbitration agreements are indeed contracts, these contracts typically provide that the employees who sign them remain employees at will
Some courts will find arbitration agreements to be unenforceable if they are both “procedurally and substantively unconscionable”. But the bottom line is that well drafted and carefully implemented arbitration agreements will be enforced, and will provide employers with a much improved context in which to defend against claims. [1] Thus, the surge in the use of arbitration agreements documented by the 2017 Cornell study is likely to continue and indeed to expand rapidly.