Jay Shepherd over at the Gruntled Employees blawg has an interesting post from the employer’s attorney perspective about why he believes mandatory arbitration clauses are a “stupid employer trick” and actually “not good for employers”.

I never understood why many employers force their employees to sign mandatory arbitration clauses, so this is refreshing to hear from a management-side employment law attorney. I have been saying this for years with little agreement from the other side of the aisle.

The points Jay makes are especially true in California, where employers have to pay for any costs of the arbitration that exceed what an employee would have to pay in a regular court (essentially just a minimal filing fee). This ends up being much more expensive for employers than going to court, because arbitrators are paid hefty rates by the hour.

In fact, forcing an employer into arbitration under their own agreement is a good way for an employee to leverage a settlement, because suddenly the employer is expending huge amounts of money just to pay for the process they forced the employee to agree to in the first place.

Tags

Arbitration | Employment Contracts | Policy : Opinion