Labor Arbitration of Discrimination Claims after 14 Penn Plaza v. Pyett: Letting Discrimination Defendants Decide Whether Plaintiff May Sue Them
Posted: 24 Oct 2009 Last revised: 7 Dec 2009
Date Written: October 23, 2009
Abstract
The Supreme Court has held that a collective bargaining agreement may waive individual employees’ right to sue over discrimination, forcing them instead into labor arbitration. The decision will now lead to a lengthy future chain of cases to determine whether all employee legal claims may be stripped by collective agreements and sent to arbitration, or only some of them; whether particular language in collective bargaining agreements will be needed to strip employees of statutory rights, or not; which demands (if any) to waive claims will constitute demands for individual bargaining, hence bargaining in bad faith; whether all dispute resolution institutions might substitute for arbitration, or only some of them; whether standards for fair representation need to be revised if unions are representing employee statutory claims, or not; and whether the role of courts reviewing arbitration awards changes when these deal with employees’ statutory rights, or not. This Article discusses these issues.
Keywords: labor law, employment law, discrimination, arbitration, dispute resolution
JEL Classification: K00
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation