Contracts, court rulings giving employers legal upper hand

Emboldened by Supreme Court decisions and a weak job market, employers are starting to require workers to sign away their rights in return for a job.

By Alana Semuels, LA Times
5:59 PM PDT, July 5, 2013

When Jose Tadeo Gamez Flores realized that his employer had failed to pay him for all the hours he was working as a janitor, he did what many other employees might do in the same situation: He tried to sue to recover the lost wages.

But Flores, 34, ran into an obstacle when he tried to file a class-action lawsuit to get back his and other janitors' wages. He had signed away his right to file a lawsuit against his employer.

After being hired, Flores had been presented with a pile of papers to sign. And he had unknowingly agreed not to take any legal problem with his bosses to the courts, but instead go to a private arbitrator handpicked by his employer.

"This is the equivalent to saying you have to give up your right to vote in an election," said Ari Moss, Flores' attorney. "It's about punishing the poor and the weak, and saying you don't have the right to come and seek redress."

(More here.)