WASHINGTON – The Senate on Thursday passed a bill to put an end to forced arbitration for survivors of sexual assault and harassment.
The legislation, which is expected to be signed into law by President Joe Biden, would allow workers to decide if they wish to use arbitration or the legal process to bring claims in the workplace, and also invalidate existing forced arbitration clauses.
Under forced arbitration, workers can only settle sexual assault or harassment claims in private, rather than in court. Under the legislation workers can still choose to use arbitration if they wish, but have further, more public options available.
The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act passed with bipartisan support by voice vote.
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Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York first introduced the bill in 2017, and reintroduced the measure alongside Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina last year.
“The bill is going to help fix a broken system that protects perpetrators and corporations and ends the days of silencing survivors,” Gillibrand said Thursday following the vote. “No longer will survivors of sexual assault or harassment in the workplace come forward and be told that they are legally forbidden to sue their employer because somewhere buried in their employment contracts was this forced arbitration clause.”
Gillibrand said not only does forced arbitration push victims into private proceedings, but it blocks survivors from “seeking information that could prove their case.”
“When you’re in an arbitration, you don’t get the same discovery rights then when you’re in a trial,” she explained, adding that more than 60 million Americans and 57.6% of women workers are estimated to fall under arbitration clauses.
“These types of agreements had the chilling effect of shielding misconduct from public scrutiny,” Graham said.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer emphasized that the bill will have a retroactive impact.
“The good news about this legislation is all the clauses that people already signed in their employment contracts, even when they didn’t know about it, will no longer be valid,” he said.
Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, who Gillibrand called the “face and the voice of this advocacy,” was also present to celebrate the vote. Carlson pushed for the change after suing former Fox News CEO Roger Ailesalleging he demoted and later fired her for rejecting his sexual advances.
“Today was such an amazing bipartisan victory,” Carlson said.
She said of the bill, “a dear friend of mine said to me back then, you know, Gretchen, something good is going to come out of this. I didn’t really see it that way at the time. But it turns out she was right.”
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism