A New York federal judge recently shook up the employment law world when he ruled that a new federal law preventing employers from requiring arbitration in sexual harassment claims also blocked arbitration for other claims brought alongside in the same case.
Last year's Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (EFAA) prohibits employers from unilaterally enforcing arbitration agreements for disputes involving sexual harassment or sexual assault. But few believed that the law would be interpreted so broadly as to also sweep up non-sexual harassment claims that happened to be brought in the same legal action.
The EFAA amended the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and was signed into law on March 3, 2022, by President Joe Biden. It amended federal law by ending forced arbitration of sexual harassment and sexual assault disputes. The statute defines a sexual harassment dispute as "a dispute relating to conduct that is alleged to constitute sexual harassment under applicable federal, tribal or state law."
The version of the law passed by Congress specifically narrowed the definition of disputes to exclude retaliation, and thus we concluded that employers would have a solid argument to keep accompanying claims in arbitration. "This is an issue that will likely be disputed in litigation," we previously noted – and that prediction has now come to fruition.
Federal Judge Broadly Blocks Arbitration
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