In what one Member of Congress described as “the most significant labor legislation of this century,” Congress just passed a bill that would allow employees to avoid enforcement of any pre-dispute agreements that require employees to arbitrate sexual assault or harassment claims, which President Biden seems prepared to sign into law. While there have been several unsuccessful attempts over the years to pass such a law, this bill appears to be headed for enactment.
On Monday, February 7, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 4445, titled the “Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021,” by a vote of 335 to 97, and the Senate just passed it by voice vote yesterday morning. The bill renders unenforceable with respect to sexual assault or harassment claims at the employee’s discretion any predispute arbitration agreement that requires employees to arbitrate disputes involving nonconsensual and/or unwanted sexual acts or contact, advances, physical contact that is sexual in nature, sexual attention, sexual comments and propositions for sexual activity, conditioning employment benefits on sexual activity, or retaliation for rejecting unwanted sexual attention. This limitation would cover any agreement involving such conduct regardless of whether the claims at issue arise under federal, state, local, or tribal law. For context, this bill expands upon the laws of certain states, such as New York, which bar the forced arbitration of sexual...
A man in his 40s who raised allegations of overseas sexual misconduct involving Democratic Party of Korea candidate Park Ji-won ahead of the June 3 local elections has been referred to the Prosecu...