The right to a jury trial is supposed to be precious. Yet, as many readers of this Newsletter know, this right has been decimated by mandatory “arbitration agreements” that workers “sign” (often by clicking “accept” on a computer screen or cell phone) when they take a job.
Few commentators have written as eloquently on this subject as U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young, who sits in Boston, MA. Here is what Judge Young had to say after being required to enforce an arbitration agreement against a worker who accused his employer of wage theft:
Congress is not impotent here. Where the arbitration bar frustrated legitimate claims of sexual harassment, a bipartisan majority of Congress simply removed it. See 9 U.S.C. § 402. Yet what about racial, gender, age, and disability discrimination? What about wage theft? Are they not just as deserving of the access to courts and juries that they enjoyed when Congress passed landmark legislation to guarantee worker rights in each of these areas?
These, of course, are policy questions beyond the power of a district judge to address. When these issues arise in litigation before the Court, I can only ask "Why?"
I'm asking.
Fraga v. Premium Retail Servs., Inc., 704 F. Supp. 3d 289, 304 (D. Mass. 2023). – PW