As More Companies Demand Arbitration Agreements, Sexual Harassment Claims Fizzle
Many in business community say arbitration is a cheaper, faster and simpler way to adjudicate claims; critics say it’s secretive and unfair to workers
Charmaine Anderson thought she had a strong case against Waffle House.
Ms. Anderson claimed the diner chain fired her in 2012 from her $3.95-an-hour waitress job near New Orleans after she complained about her boss, whom she accused of texting her images of his penis, then threatening her with a knife if she reported him.
Her plans to pursue the claim unraveled when her attorney discovered after filing suit that Ms. Anderson, like other Waffle House workers, had signed an agreement mandating she settle any employment-related claims through arbitration instead of civil court.
Her attorney advised her that it wasn’t worth taking it to arbitration. Without a lawyer, she dropped it. “I knew I couldn’t fight it so I just let it go,” said Ms. Anderson, now 42 years old and living unemployed in Mississippi. “It was a humiliating situation. I felt like I was nobody and didn’t have a chance.”
More companies are adopting the mandatory-arbitration clauses, and many employees are walking away from harassment, wrongful-termination and discrimination claims rather than taking them to a privately run tribunal
.. When they call, “I say, I’m sorry, arbitration is stacked against you,” he said.
.. Before Ms. Anderson’s case was dismissed in court in 2013, Waffle House had pushed back on her allegations, disputing even that the man she accused was her supervisor, according to court records.
.. Arbitrators usually don’t follow federal rules of civil procedure and, compared with courts, impose tighter limits on pretrial discovery. Arbitration cases are generally confidential and harder to appeal.
.. critics say the system is secretive and unfair to workers. Some lawmakers in Congress are currently pushing to restrict mandatory arbitration in cases of sexual harassment.
.. It isn’t clear how many sexual-harassment claims are heard in arbitration but the evidence suggests it is a relatively small number. The American Arbitration Association says it received about 100 sexual-harassment claims in 2016
.. Plaintiffs’ lawyers he surveyed in a new study told him that settlements on average are $12,000 less for clients covered by the clauses.