Bill would let racial discrimination victims bypass forced arbitration
This article was originally published in The St. Louis American. Read it here.
Democratic U.S. Reps. Wesley Bell of Missouri and Hank Johnson of Georgia, along with U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, have introduced legislation that would allow workers and consumers to take racial discrimination claims to court rather than being limited to private arbitration.
The “Ending Forced Arbitration of Race Discrimination Act” would bar companies from requiring employees or customers to resolve race-based complaints through arbitration, a process critics say favors corporations and shields misconduct from public view.
Bell said people who experience discrimination deserve an opportunity to be heard in a public forum. “People who face racial discrimination deserve their day in court. They shouldn’t be pushed into a private process that was designed to protect corporations, not workers,” he said. He added that St. Louis residents know well “the consequences of systems that keep people from speaking out and seeking fair treatment.”
Booker said the measure is intended to ensure equal access to justice. “No one who has faced discrimination because of their race should lose their right to seek justice simply because they were forced to sign an arbitration agreement,” he said. “This is a long-overdue change in the law that will empower workers and others to fight back against mistreatment and achieve equality.”
Johnson called the bill an overdue extension of protections Congress has granted in other areas. “Everyone deserves the right to choose between court and arbitration,” he said.
Dozens of civil rights and legal advocacy organizations are backing the proposal, including the National Urban League, the National Fair Housing Alliance, the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
Linda Lipsen, CEO of the American Association for Justice, praised the bill, saying, “Forced arbitration is a secretive and rigged system that too often allows race discrimination to continue relentlessly.”
