Letter Supporting the Restoring Justice for Workers Act, H.R. 2749
September 10, 2019
Re: H.R. 2749, the Restoring Justice for Workers Act
Dear Representative,
On behalf of the 24 national unions in the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), I strongly urge you to support H.R. 2749, the Restoring Justice for Workers Act. In 2018, in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Epic Systems v. Lewis that employers may lawfully require employees to agree, as a condition of employment, to pursue work-related claims in individual arbitrations. H.R. 2749 would restore the right of working people to join together to pursue employment and civil rights claims in court.
Today more than 60 million employees, including millions of professionals, are subject to mandatory employment arbitration.[1] Many of these people also are prohibited by class action waivers from pursuing collective legal action, even in the form of arbitration. Simply in order to work, these individuals are locked into an employer-created dispute resolution process that research shows regularly produces employer-favorable outcomes if they want to enforce statutory rights, including the Fair Labor Standards Act’s wage and hour protections and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act’s anti-discrimination prohibitions.[2] The fact that female employees and African-American employees are the most likely to be subject to mandatory employment arbitration makes the problem that much more concerning.[3]
It is important to understand that mandatory employment arbitration is not the same as the arbitration procedures found in the collective bargaining agreements of DPE affiliates and other labor unions. Unlike with mandatory employment arbitration, employers negotiate labor arbitration procedures with employees and their unions, ensuring that employees’ due process rights are protected and the procedure is fair to both sides. Further, labor arbitration procedures are intended for disagreements over the provisions of a private contract, not the enforcement of statutory rights.
Congressional action is urgently needed. With the U.S. Supreme Court’s pro-employer decision in Epic Systems, we are likely to see a dramatic expansion of mandatory employment arbitration, particularly in provisions that prevent employees from taking collective legal action. We know this because employers previously expanded their use of mandatory employment arbitration after another employer-friendly U.S. Supreme Court decision in a 2011 case that upheld the use of class action waivers in mandatory arbitration provisions.[4] The U.S. Supreme Court’s Epic Systems decision removes any lingering doubt for employers considering mandating employment arbitration on their workforces.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Epic Systems decision blessed a rigged system that leaves working people without a fair opportunity to enforce their statutory rights. Fortunately Congress has the opportunity to right this wrong by making clear that employees need not give up their right to the U.S. court system, and their right to pursue justice together, when they go to work. It is for this reason that I ask you to co-sponsor H.R. 2749, and vote yes when the legislation comes before the U.S. House of Representatives for a vote.
If you have any questions, please contact DPE Assistant to the President/Legislative Director Michael Wasser at (202) 638-0320 x. 119
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dorning, President
[1] Colvin, Alexander J.S. (2018, Apr. 6). The growing use of mandatory arbitration. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute. Available here: https://www.epi.org/files/pdf/144131.pdf.
[2] Stone, Katherine W. and Alexander J.S. Colvin. (2015, Dec. 7). The arbitration epidemic. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute. Available here: https://www.epi.org/publication/the-arbitration-epidemic/.
[3] Colvin 2018
[4] Ibid.
House/Senate Letter Opposing the Local Radio Freedom Act (LRFA)
March 14, 2019
Dear Representative/Senator,
On behalf of the 24 national unions in the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), I write to express strong opposition to the Local Radio Freedom Act (LRFA). This bill would deny music professionals, many of whom are members of DPE affiliate unions, the right to be paid fairly for their work. I ask that you neither co-sponsor nor otherwise support this legislation.
Despite its well-intending name, the LRFA would serve to pad the profits of major corporations at the expense of recording artists. American terrestrial radio stations have long profited from playing songs without compensating the artists and musicians who performed these creative works. These recording artists are not guaranteed a share of the advertising revenue their performances help generate. The LRFA would enshrine this injustice by misclassifying fair payments for the use of recording artists’ works as a “tax.”
Recording artists, like all professionals, deserve a fair return on their work. Just as you would not consider nurses’ pay to be a tax on hospitals, you should not accept the premise put forward by the LRFA’s supporters that frees them of the responsibility to pay artists and musicians for use of their recorded performances.
It is for this reason that I respectfully ask that you oppose the LRFA. Congress should be working to provide a performance right for recording artists across all music listening platforms, not blocking their ability to be paid for the work they do.
If you have any questions, please contact DPE Assistant to the President/Legislative Director, Michael Wasser at (202) 638-0320 x.119.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dorning, President