Reuters reports:
The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a blow to the rights of workers on Monday by allowing companies to require them to sign away their ability to bring class-action claims against management, agreements already in place for about 25 million employees.
The justices, in a 5-4 ruling with the court’s conservatives in the majority, endorsed the legality of the growing practice by companies to compel workers to sign arbitration agreements waiving their right to bring class-action claims on issues such as overtime wages or gender-based pay disparities either in court or before private arbitrators.
President Donald Trump’s administration last year reversed the government’s stance in the case, siding with the companies after former President Barack Obama’s administration had supported a U.S. National Labor Relations Board decision invalidating such employment agreements.
An awful 5–4 decision in Epic Systems, written by Gorsuch, lets employers force their workers to sign agreements that shunt them into one-on-one arbitration, wiping out their ability to sue in federal court collectively. A massive blow to class actions. https://t.co/3YtdU3BI2Q
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) May 21, 2018
Gorsuch writes for a conservative majority. Ginsburg calls decision “egregiously wrong,” is reading her dissent from the bench. https://t.co/C8R5iYrHjv
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) May 21, 2018
1st decision from #SCOTUS is Epic. 5-4, upholding employers’ ability to use boilerplate contract language to bar class-action suits over workplace issues. Majority by Gorsuch sees no conflict with fed labor law.
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) May 21, 2018