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posted by janrinok on Wednesday May 23 2018, @12:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the no-one-was-surprised dept.

The Center for American Progress reports

The Supreme Court held on [May 21] that employers can force their employees to sign away many of their rights to sue their employers. As a practical matter, Monday's decision in Epic Systems v. Lewis [PDF] will enable employers to engage in small-scale wage theft with impunity, so long as they spread the impact of this theft among many employees.

Neil Gorsuch, who occupies the seat that Senate Republicans held open for a year until Donald Trump could fill it, wrote the Court's 5-4 decision. The Court split along party lines.

Epic Systems involves three consolidated cases, each involving employment contracts cutting off employees' rights to sue their employer in a court of law. In at least one of these cases, the employees were required to sign away these rights as a condition of starting their job. In another, existing workers were told to sign away their rights if they wanted to keep working.

Each contract contained two provisions, a "forced arbitration" provision, which requires legal disputes between the employer and the employee to be resolved by a private arbitrator and not by a real court; and a provision prohibiting employees from bringing class actions against the employer.

Writing with his trademarked smugness, Gorsuch presents Epic Systems as a simple application of a legal text. "The parties before us contracted for arbitration", he writes. "They proceeded to specify the rules that would govern their arbitrations, indicating their intention to use individualized rather than class or collective action procedures. And this much the Arbitration Act seems to protect pretty absolutely."

It's the sort of statement someone might write if they'd never read the Federal Arbitration Act--the law at the heart of this case--and had only read the Supreme Court's decisions expanding that act's scope.

[...] Epic Systems means that employers who cheat a single employee out of a great deal of money will probably be held accountable for their actions--though it is worth noting that arbitrators are more likely to favor employers than courts of law, and that they typically award less money to employees when those employees do prevail. The biggest losers under Epic Systems, however, will be the victims of widespread, but small-scale, wage theft.

Via Common Dreams, Public Citizen says Congress Should Overturn Today's U.S. Supreme Court Decision Eroding Workers' Rights

Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization founded in 1971 to represent consumer interests in Congress, the executive branch, and the courts.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @03:30AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @03:30AM (#682928)

    Well name calling won't help, that is basically what got us here. All the "flyover ASSHOLES" on this site, ok most, are not the Jesus bible thumping types you are referring to. What we suckers on the ground tend to miss is the insane two party bullshit we've been conditioned to. It works wonders to keep us divided, and we already know that a LOT of the Trump supporters are regretting their choice to just fuck the system. The few that are trying to hold on to their bad choice are to be pitied more than anything.

  • (Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @04:42AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @04:42AM (#682953)

    Bless your heart. I Voted for him and still happy about it!

    Sorry to contradict your claim, however, Trumps approval ratings are going up despite the 90% negative press. But I’m sure the news media is only looking out for the people. ;-)

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @02:07PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @02:07PM (#683108)

      well sir i think trump is doing an awful job... he is failing to implement anything remotely progressive...

      at the same time, i still approve of the awful job he is doing... i share your happiness nonetheless... we sent him to be a bull in a china shop knowing that our only option was to burn it all down... it is now starting to catch fire... and i think overeducated liberals who have never worked a day in their life but feel no remorse about stealing from the working class are getting what has been coming to them for a long time

      my family are farmers, construction workers and electrical engineers... practical men and women who do not need government to survive... we have no fear of this rotten system burning to the ground

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @02:26PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @02:26PM (#683112)

        my family are farmers, construction workers and electrical engineers... practical men and women who do not need government to survive... we have no fear of this rotten system burning to the ground

        Your real masters count on that. They'll still be in charge after it is burnt.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @03:41PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @03:41PM (#683142)

          my family are farmers, construction workers and electrical engineers... practical men and women who do not need government to survive... we have no fear of this rotten system burning to the ground

          Your real masters count on that. They'll still be in charge after it is burnt.

          I couldn't say what our "real masters" are counting on, one way or another. But I'm really doubtful that "they" will end up being in charge once it is all burned to the ground. I'm also skeptical of the myth of the self-sufficient man who needs no government to survive. Revolutions are unpredictable. There will be lots and lots of collateral damage when things start lighting on fire. Where we end up is anybody's guess. One thing I am sure of is that there will be plenty of tears all around. Yes, even those self-sufficient men waving their AK-47 penis substitutes will end up wailing and in tears when this is all over. Be careful out there. Life can be rough.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @06:34PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 23 2018, @06:34PM (#683201)

        No fear huh? It blows my mind when people say such clueless shit, it really shows how badly you've been brainwashed. You don't believe you need government because by and large the government has been doing a "good enough" job, but idiots like you see your paycheck and just get SO MAD at how much of a cut goes to the gov.

        Yes we have a lot of things to fix in our government, but there is more good than bad. Just fixing the election process would have widespread benefits. Burning everything to the ground? Well that is how you get hordes of hungry and angry people grouping together and attacking each other.

        The "rotten" components of every government are always the people. Since there is no way to fix human nature we therefore need to keep improving our systems of government to shut down avenues of corruption. It will never be finished, but it will be hindered by the useful idiots such as yourself that get brainwashed so easily.