Warren attacks Gorsuch's Supreme Court decision

[bluewater]

Elizabeth Warren goes on the attack against Neil Gorsuch’s first major decision

Neil Gorsuch’s first major opinion, after he gained control of a Supreme Court seat that Senate Republicans held open for a year until President Trump could fill it, was a decision allowing employers to force their workers to sign away their right to sue their employer.

Under Gorsuch’s decision, workers who refused to give up that right could be fired on the spot.
The decision in Epic Systems v. Lewis was 5-4, along partisan lines.

On Friday, senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) released a plan that, among other things, would significantly mitigate the damage Epic Systems caused to American workers’ ability to assert their rights in court. Warren’s proposal relies on executive action, so it cannot correct the Supreme Court’s error in Epic Systems entirely — only an Act of Congress or a new Supreme Court majority may do that. But it could restore rights to numerous workers employed by federal contractors.

To explain, Epic Systems involves a practice known as “forced arbitration,” where companies require individuals to sign away their rights as a condition of doing business with the company. A typical forced arbitration agreement requires workers to give up their right to sue their employer, and instead requires those workers to go to a privatized arbitration system that favors corporate parties.

https://thinkprogress.org/elizabeth-warren-has-a-plan-to-save-american-workers-from-neil-gorsuch-722b24f3898b/

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Using the law to threaten and control workers - must be great employers

Is it any wonder people want to form their own businesses and work for themselves?

limiting one's right to sue is the other side of tort reform's limited damage awards

you never know what circumstances can arise while working for a company, any more than you
can know what you'll encounter while driving on the highway tomorrow

[mopinko]

2. this strikes me as pretty creepy. epic is a healthcare software co.

i dont know about elsewhere, but almost all the hospitals here use epic emr software.
i know mayo uses it, too.

i would like those people to be happy and well paid and love their job.

[LibFarmer]

3. Arbitration clauses are present in many contracts now

Landlord/Tenant, Vendor/Purchaser, Health care providers/patients, Sports teams/players.

They still get due process in front of an arbitrator which is chosen by both sides - usually retired judges. A lot of people collect damages from arbitration. It is much easier to present a case. They still can have extensive discovery to find evidence of culpability by either party.

Some trial lawyers hate the system because awards are usually reasonable so their percentage suffers.

Congress needs to tweak the system so everyone's rights are protected.

[stuffmatters]

4. Earlier Gorsuch: a worker must guard employer's broken truck & freeze to death.

instead of seeking shelter. Despite Franken emphasizing Gorsuch's atrocious, insane, cruel position in this case (which Gorsuch still was defending!) the Republican Senate confirmed him onto SCOTUS.