In order to avoid public scrutiny, many employers require employees and prospective employees to agree to resolve employment disputes in private, confidential arbitration.\u00a0 As a result, the deterrent of public exposure is eliminated.<\/p>\n
To remedy this at least as to sexual harassment in the workplace, on March 3, 2022, President Biden signed into law the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 (the \u201cAct\u201d).\u00a0 The Act prohibits the enforcement of pre-dispute mandatory arbitration agreements for claims of sexual assault or sexual harassment in the workplace.<\/p>\n
Note, however, that the Act applies only to disputes and claims that arise or accrue on or after the date of enactment (March 3, 2022).\u00a0 The date on which a dispute or claim arises or accrues is often itself hotly contested as is whether the allegations rise to the level of sexual assault or sexual harassment.\u00a0 Litigation regarding these and other matters is anticipated.<\/p>\n
Importantly, irrespective of what the arbitration agreement may say, the Act makes clear that only a court<\/strong> will determine whether such disputes must be resolved judicially or in arbitration.\u00a0 The Act states:\u00a0 \u201cthe applicability of this [Act] to an agreement to arbitrate and the validity and enforceability of an agreement to which this [Act] applies shall be determined by a court<\/strong>\u2026.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 (Emphasis supplied.)<\/p>\n In other words, however such disputes are resolved, they will be raised in a public forum<\/strong>, providing the deterrent of public exposure intended by Congress.\u00a0\u00a0 This is a clear victory for the #MeToo movement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In order to avoid public scrutiny, many employers require employees and prospective employees to agree to resolve employment disputes in private, confidential arbitration.\u00a0 As a result, the deterrent of public exposure is eliminated. To remedy this at least as to sexual harassment in the workplace, on March 3, 2022, President Biden signed into law the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[53],"class_list":["post-381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-updates-in-employment-law","tag-metoo"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n