Forced Arbitration
The Supreme Court turned its back on workers in Murphy Oil/Epic Systems
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Terry O’Neill, Executive Director
(415) 296-7629
toneill@nelahq.org
U.S. Supreme Court Deals Major Blow To Employees’ Basic Rights
Statement of Terry O’Neill, Executive Director of the National Employment Lawyers Association
OAKLAND, Calif., May 21, 2018 – The National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) is appalled by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, Ernst & Young, LLP v. Morris, and National Labor Relations Board v. Murphy Oil, USA(“Murphy Oil”), allowing employers to sidestep federal labor laws intended to guarantee workers’ rights. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg aptly put it in her dissent from the majority opinion, the decision in this case is “egregiously wrong.”
Nearly 100 years ago, workers fought and died for the right to act collectively to resolve grievances and improve working conditions. Today, as more comes out about the systemic abuses—including harassment, discrimination, wage theft, and others—that pervade America’s workplaces, courts should expand employees’ ability to challenge unlawful practices, not suppress them as a bare majority of the Supreme Court has done.
The employers in the Murphy Oil trio of cases stood accused of illegally withholding overtime pay or other compensation, in violation of … Read More
