Supreme Court Rules that Companies Can Ban Class Actions

Think about all the people whom you helped find jobs.  How many of them are for private companies?  Probably the image that you like to conjure in your mind is an image in which workers are able to stand up for themselves.  As of now, things have changed for workers.

Now when workers sign a contract, they might be giving up their right to hold companies responsible for illegal practices.  On Wednesday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that companies can ban class actions in the fine print of contracts.

According to Deepak Gupta of Public Citizen, a 5-4 vote, the justices held that corporations may use arbitration clauses to cut off consumers and employees’ right to band together through class actions to hold corporations accountable.

“The court’s decision today turns the Federal Arbitration Act of 1925 – a law that was intended to facilitate private arbitration between sophisticated companies – into a shield against corporate accountability,” writes Gupta.  “The decision will make it harder for people with civil rights, labor, consumer and other kinds of claims that stem from corporate wrongdoing to join together to obtain their rightful compensation.”