Five former employees have sued the Phoenix Suns and Mercury for workplace discrimination in federal court since November 2024.
The NBA and WNBA franchises have denied the allegations – and made current employees sign an arbitration agreement limiting their ability to sue.
“This policy is standard at most large organizations, including many professional sports teams,” said Stacey Mitch, the Suns’ and Mercury’s senior vice president of communications, in a written statement to The Arizona Republic. “This policy does not result in the waiver of claims.”
The Suns and Mercury told employees this spring that to keep their jobs, they had to sign a dispute resolution agreement, ESPN reported and The Republic confirmed on Sept. 23. Dispute resolution policies outline how a business will handle and resolve internal conflicts, often through mediation or arbitration, as opposed to going to court.
Multiple attorneys told ESPN, which first reported on the new policy, that such agreements are not unusual, but that courts “almost always require” that current employees receive “consideration,” or something in exchange for the altered legal relationship.
But that is not true in Arizona, according to three local labor and employment experts who spoke...
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