Google employees join US lawmakers against mandatory arbitration

SAN FRANCISCO – Six Google employees on Thursday joined US lawmakers to support bills that would ban mandatory arbitration in employment and consumer contracts, as the workers seek to build on recent success in getting the Alphabet Inc company to drop some arbitration provisions.
Mandatory arbitration, which prevents people from taking disputes to court, has become a big target for workers’ rights activists in recent years. They have expressed concern that requiring private arbitration helps businesses facing harassment and discrimination allegations to avoid public scrutiny.
“We cannot have an honest conversation about labour rights or restoring consumer protections until we pull back the curtain of forced arbitration, which denies employees and consumers of their ability to fully and publicly vindicate their rights,” Tanuja Gupta, a New York-based Google employee said during a news conference in Washington on Thursday.