Last month, the Senate Judiciary Committee quietly and unanimously approved legislation to end forced arbitration agreements between private employers and employees alleging sexual harassment or assault. The legislation is also advancing in the House, and could potentially become law before the end of the year, if it’s tacked on to another piece of legislation moving through in the end-of-the year onslaught.
The bill would end mandatory arbitration in these civil suits, allowing survivors to sue in open court. It’s got some pretty surprising bipartisan heft behind it. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced it in Senate, along with Reps. Cheri Bustos (D-IL), Morgan Griffith (R-VA), and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) in the House. It’s got support from the really extreme right in the form of Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, as well as one of the strongest champions of the left, Democrat Mazie Hirono from Hawaii. That’s how it got out of committee unanimously.
“We have the votes. It is widely bipartisan. The support in the Senate is extraordinarily good,” Gillibrand told Politico. “We have senior Republicans like Lindsey Graham and Chuck Grassley, plus a lot of the female leaders such as Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Shelley Moore Capito and [Marsha] Blackburn. So we have a really good coalition.” Grassley, the Iowa Republican, said in committee, “I’m voting for this bill. All victims of sexual assault or sexual harassment deserve to have their voices heard and to have the option to go to court if they choose to go to court. Mandatory arbitration shouldn’t be enforceable in these cases.”
Listen to this, from the House Judiciary committee hearing: “We all understand the benefits that arbitration provides, however if the arbitration system is not functioning properly, and is being used to stifle individual rights, we have an obligation to fix it.” You would not in a million years come up with Ohio’s worst contribution to public life as the source of that quote, but it is indeed from Rep. Jim Jordan.
It probably doesn’t hurt that the primary driver behind the movement, coming four years after #MeToo exploded in public life, is former Fox News star Gretchen Carlson whose lawsuit against the network in 2016 brought down founder Roger Ailes and cost the network $20 million. “This is an historic opportunity to end silencing mechanisms that prevent survivors from speaking out, and it will allow survivors the ability to speak openly and protect others in workplace across the country,” Carlson said after the Senate hearing and vote.
That has probably helped Republicans like Graham come around, though it’s not necessarily made the U.S. Chamber of Commerce or other business groups sign on. “Listen, if I’m a business person I’d want to limit legal exposure, and arbitration in business matters is OK,” Graham said. “But this is not a business matter. This is misconduct directed toward individual workers.”
The Chamber has been backing an alternative from Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, which would end arbitration for sexual assault charges in the workplace—but not across the board for sexual harassment allegations, which would still be subject to arbitration depending on a number of criteria, including plaintiffs being allowed to speak publicly about their cases. Ernst is working with Gillibrand to try to make some changes, but with the support of so many other Republicans on board, she doesn’t have a lot of support for watering down the legislation too much.
The bill would end mandatory arbitration in these civil suits, allowing survivors to sue in open court. It’s got some pretty surprising bipartisan heft behind it. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced it in Senate, along with Reps. Cheri Bustos (D-IL), Morgan Griffith (R-VA), and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) in the House. It’s got support from the really extreme right in the form of Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, as well as one of the strongest champions of the left, Democrat Mazie Hirono from Hawaii. That’s how it got out of committee unanimously.
“We have the votes. It is widely bipartisan. The support in the Senate is extraordinarily good,” Gillibrand told Politico. “We have senior Republicans like Lindsey Graham and Chuck Grassley, plus a lot of the female leaders such as Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Shelley Moore Capito and [Marsha] Blackburn. So we have a really good coalition.” Grassley, the Iowa Republican, said in committee, “I’m voting for this bill. All victims of sexual assault or sexual harassment deserve to have their voices heard and to have the option to go to court if they choose to go to court. Mandatory arbitration shouldn’t be enforceable in these cases.”
Listen to this, from the House Judiciary committee hearing: “We all understand the benefits that arbitration provides, however if the arbitration system is not functioning properly, and is being used to stifle individual rights, we have an obligation to fix it.” You would not in a million years come up with Ohio’s worst contribution to public life as the source of that quote, but it is indeed from Rep. Jim Jordan.
It probably doesn’t hurt that the primary driver behind the movement, coming four years after #MeToo exploded in public life, is former Fox News star Gretchen Carlson whose lawsuit against the network in 2016 brought down founder Roger Ailes and cost the network $20 million. “This is an historic opportunity to end silencing mechanisms that prevent survivors from speaking out, and it will allow survivors the ability to speak openly and protect others in workplace across the country,” Carlson said after the Senate hearing and vote.
That has probably helped Republicans like Graham come around, though it’s not necessarily made the U.S. Chamber of Commerce or other business groups sign on. “Listen, if I’m a business person I’d want to limit legal exposure, and arbitration in business matters is OK,” Graham said. “But this is not a business matter. This is misconduct directed toward individual workers.”
The Chamber has been backing an alternative from Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, which would end arbitration for sexual assault charges in the workplace—but not across the board for sexual harassment allegations, which would still be subject to arbitration depending on a number of criteria, including plaintiffs being allowed to speak publicly about their cases. Ernst is working with Gillibrand to try to make some changes, but with the support of so many other Republicans on board, she doesn’t have a lot of support for watering down the legislation too much.