Majority of Americans Oppose Forced Arbitration
The Employee Rights Advocacy Institute For Law & Policy and Public Citizen have completed a National Study of Public Attitudes on Forced Arbitration. The release is no doubt an effort to support the Arbitration Fairness Act, which is currently in Congress.
The study is based on a major national survey on mandatory arbitration of employment and consumer claims conducted by Lake Research Partners.
The survey of 800 likely voters nationwide found that:
- A solid majority of Americans (59%) opposes forced arbitration clauses in the fine print of employment and consumer contracts, including both men and women and majorities of Democrats, independents, and Republicans.
- Similarly strong majorities (59%) support the Arbitration Fairness Act. Support for the Act also crosses traditional gender and political divides.
- Even after voters hear arguments in favor of, and opposed to, forced arbitration, opposition to the practice holds firm. Just one-third of the electorate supports the practice.
- Roughly three-quarters of Americans believe they can sue an employer or company should they be seriously harmed or have a major dispute arise - even if they are bound by forced arbitration terms.
- Most Americans are unaware of the rights being taken away from them. Approximately two-thirds cannot remember seeing anything about forced arbitration in either Terms of Employment or Terms of Agreement for goods and services.
Here is a link to the study materials.
Here are more materials on the current version of the Arbitration Fairness Act.
Thanks for this important and timely post. This one is pretty good too. http://tinyurl.com/cqfzr5 The bottom line is mandatory arbitration is a terribly one-sided and unfair process, and the sooner we do away with it, the better.
Thank you also for the post. I have to agree with the above poster, Stan Flatley opinion. "Arbitration is a terribly one-sided and unfair process"