For example, if an employer signs an employment contract for a specified period of years, he or she loses the mandates to sue their employer if they get fired or discriminated at their workplace.

Business Practices

Most employers incorporate employment arbitration agreement regarding the contract. This means that employees who sign for such a deal cannot impose a legal action against their employers in a court of law. In such a case, disputes arising in the workplace get settled through arbitration, which is an alternative to filing a lawsuit in the court.

New Laws

As a way of mitigating employees’ oppression by the harsh arbitration agreements, the legislature in California has enacted two new statutes which have favored employee’s arbitration protection against workplace disputes. One of the laws, SB 1007, offers either of the arbitration parties with the right to hire a certified reporter whose role is to officially transcribe all the proceedings, depositions, or hearings, for record keeping.

Transcription of testimonies and hearing reports can get essential for employers because it could get more comfortable to refer or cite from a stored record of previous proceedings.

The second statute that the California legislature passed was referred to as SB 1241. This enactment held that provisions by the arbitration cannot allow employees in the state of California to arbitrate their complaints in foreign states or enable arbitrators to utilize laws from other states in the U.S.

Apparently, such provisions would have gotten regarded as unconscionable even in the previous law. This regard is because the courts primarily insist that employees ought not to be burdened with expenses or other consequences in arbitration, which surpass what a court action would require them to bear.

The Pros of Workplace Arbitration Protection

• Arbitration helps to keep off harsh and emotion-fueled verdict by the jury.
• Procedures of arbitration are quite straightforward.
• Arbitration offers more privacy with no media glare, as compared to a public court trial.
• Settling of a case is cheaper and quick in arbitration than in a court of law.
• There are limited chances of appeal by the loser.

     The Cons

• The law remains unsettled on the enforceability of arbitration agreements.
• The costs of an arbitrator and forum are high.
• It becomes difficult to do away with cases on summary judgment or dismissal.

The post New Arbitration Protections for CA Employees appeared first on UELG.

Now, the California law designed to provide additional arbitration protection seems to be slightly tipping the scales in the advantage of the employees. Here are the key facts about the changes and the way they can impact both sides in any such dispute.

SB 1007 and SB 1241

The statutes, both of which were passed in September 2016, impact the arbitration proceedings. The first, SB 1007 covers the right to have a shorthand reporter fully transcribe any proceedings, hearings or depositions and transform them this way into an official record.

The second new statute, SB 1241 says that any arbitration provisions cannot require any employee in California to arbitrate their individual claims in other US states. It also forbids the arbitrators from applying laws that are present in some other states.

Implications of the Statutes

The implication of the first statute, the SB 1007 is clear – an arbitration proceeding will have a certified shorthand reporter with the task of transcribing any exchange between the employee, employer and their legal representatives. The second statute, the SB 1241 is more significant because it essentially states that an arbitration proceeding cannot include the possibility of processing the claim in another state and under the laws of that state.

This mainly impacts bigger business organizations like corporations that could, in theory, move the arbitration proceedings into a state which laws are friendlier to their legal goals.

The Level of Arbitration Protection

The provided level of protection in the case of arbitration procedures in California does help the employees, but this legal avenue is still preferable for a company than official court proceedings. Firstly, they avoid jury verdicts that are often emotionally driven and less impacted by rational facts.

Then, they also provide a more streamlined process that demands less time and effort from the participants and includes a lower level of public exposition, especially from the attention of the media. For a range of business organizations, this alone could be reason enough to choose arbitration.

Finally, the arbitration proceedings are generally less expensive than a court procedure and the fees of the lawyers included are most of the time lower than that of a court appearance.

Next Steps

With all of these facts, it is clear that the changes in the California’s laws do provide a higher level of arbitration protection for the employees, but still make the actual legal mechanism more effective for the majority of employers than a court procedure.

The post New Arbitration Protections for California Employees appeared first on UELG.