Court Guts Workers' Right To Sue Their Bosses

Craig Becker, general counsel to the AFL-CIO and a former member of the NLRB, writes in Politico Magazine:

"Unnoticed except by employment lawyers, the United States Court of Appeals in New Orleans last month issued what might be the most important workers' rights opinions in decades. The decision permits employers to require workers, as a condition of keeping their jobs, to agree to arbitrate all workplace disputes and to do so as individuals, standing alone against their employer. The ruling could spell the end of employment class actions that were instrumental to breaching the barriers of both race and sex discrimination after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and remain critical to enforcement of minimum wage and other labor standards laws."

He notes that that if the court's holding becomes law, "all but the most sought-after employees, baseball stars and skilled computer programmers, and those represented by unions, will have to yield their rights. The result will be a right-less workplace."

Read the full story here.