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Supreme
Court Restricts Worker’s Access To Courts
March 23, 2001
by Jack Lipsman
Non-union workers will find it more difficult to gain access to
courts to settle disputes with their employers, according to a
March 21st ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. The court said
that employees could be forced to accept arbitration, a
stipulation in an agreement many workers are required to sign when
hiring on.
As with any workplace ruling by the highest court, it will
embolden this and other employers to continue the very behavior
that precipitated the dispute in the first place. In this case
Circuit City was charged with harassing a gay employee, a former
electronics salesman. The employee, Saint Clair Adams, then sought
relief in federal court.
The lower court, and then the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
agreed with Adams, but then the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that
Circuit City could use the 1925 Federal Arbitration Act to force
Adams to accept arbitration and keep him from the courts.
Adams lawyer, Michael Rubin, argued that the law makes an
exception for workers engaged in, “....interstate commerce.”
The high court threw out the exception. While workers could still
attempt to bring their disputes to court, this ruling makes the
effort uphill all the way and tags the try as doomed to failure.
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