Judge’s Rare Arbitration Plea Gets Attention, but No Big Changes

A federal judge who lamented that precedent required him to send a wage-and-hour case to arbitration isn’t alone in criticizing the practice while enforcing it, but the legislative fix he urged looks unlikely.

Workers often sign arbitration agreements when they start a new job, which makes it difficult if not impossible for them to later pursue wage-related claims in court. US Supreme Court precedent consigning those cases to arbitration “effectively eviscerates years of hard-fought Congressional protections for American workers,” Judge William G. Young said, bemoaning the outcome in a retail merchandiser’s case even as he faithfully applied the high ...