The Supreme Court has Gutted Workers'Rights

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court, in the case of Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, has ruled that employees can be forced, as a condition of employment, to give up their right to sue collectively to remedy wage theft.  This decision is wrong on so many levels, and Congress needs to reverse it.

The majority decision, written by Justice Gorsuch, ignores the fundamental right under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act of workers to act collectively to address wage and workplace conditions.  Instead, relying on the same sorts of "penumbras and emanations" of the law that the conservative majority derides when the liberals on the Court expand individual rights, the majority held that the Federal Arbitration Act somehow trumps the NLRA.  The majority also ignores the fact that, because most individual wage theft claims are small, the only economically viable way to vindicate employee rights is to act collectively.

Congress has before it the Arbitration Fairness Act, which would outlaw forced arbitration in employment contracts.  Unfortunately, the current Congress is unlikely to act on this legislation.  Hopefully a new Congress in 2019 will take up the matter.