Hello, and welcome to LegalEase. Today’s topic is about forced arbitration and sex discrimination claims.

We recently reported that in March of 2022, Congress entered legislation that basically said, if an employee, or anyone for that reason, signs an arbitration agreement and later claims sexual harassment, the employee can go straight to court and get out of the arbitration agreement previously signed. In other words, employers can no longer force arbitration when there’s a claim of sexual harassment.

A new issue recently arose in federal court of New Jersey, regarding whether sex discrimination claims can follow the same rule of law as sexual harassment claims. Here’s a scenario: If an employee signed an arbitration provision and that employee later files a sex discrimination claim, can the employee go straight to court and get out of the arbitration provision?

Well, the district court said no, and here’s the reason. Although many people use sex discrimination and sexual harassment interchangeably, they are different, right? So, when we talk about sexual harassment, we’re talking about unwelcomed sexual advances. When we talk about sex discrimination, we’re talking about discrimination based on sex or gender; two different things. The court held that if an employee who signs an arbitration agreement later claims sex discrimination, that’s not included in the law passed by Congress.

Now Congress could, of course, change the law. However, as it stands today, sexual harassment claims cannot be forced into arbitration, but sex discrimination claims can be forced into arbitration.

If you have any questions about how to implement this new legislation, give us a call. We’ll be happy to help walk you through the statute.  Thank you for joining LegalEase.