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The Senate on Thursday passed a bill barring employers from using forced arbitration agreements to prevent victims of workplace sexual assault and harassment from pursuing damages, sending it to President Biden’s desk to become law.
The legislation passed the Senate by voice vote after the House approved it 335-97 earlier this week.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who co-sponsored the measure with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), celebrated the passage of what she said was “among the largest workplace reforms, certainly in our lifetimes.”
“It will give survivors their day in court, allow them to discuss their cases publicly and end the days of institutional protection for harassers,” she said.
Biden is expected to sign the legislation in the coming days.
Approximately 60 million workers are subject to forced arbitration provisions in the workplace, according to the American Association of Justice.
The bill, known as the “Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act,” gives victims the choice of whether to pursue their claims in arbitration or in open court. It also retroactively invalidates forced arbitration clauses in ongoing cases.
In remarks on the Senate floor prior to the vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) described the legislation as “painfully overdue.”
“For decades, workplace practices like mandatory arbitration have perpetuated cultures of abuse and accountability,” Schumer added. “This is wrong, it is unfair, and it’s about time it changed.”
While GOP critics labeled the legislation as government overreach, Graham insisted that barring forced arbitration was “not bad for business,” but “good for America.”
“The days of taking sexual harassment, sexual assault claims and burying them in the basement of arbitration are over,” Graham said.
“We’re saying you’re not going to sign away your life in terms of having your day in court when someone treats you poorly.”
Gillibrand and Graham initially introduced the bill in 2017, at the height of the #MeToo movement.
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