H.R. 4445
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I say to the Senator, I agree with everything you said. You said it well. So what is the goal here?
Senator Gillibrand and I and many others have been working to stop the practice of someone signing an employment contract, having a sexual harassment or assault problem in the workplace, and being forced into arbitration that is skewed for the employer against the employee for these things to be hidden.
We do not intend to take unrelated claims out of the contract. What we are preventing here is sexual assault and sexual harassment claims being forced into arbitration, which perpetuates the problem. The light of day in a courtroom is what we are hoping for. The plaintiff still has to prove their case. The defendant has robust due process.
But Senator Ernst's concerns, I share. If lawyers try to game the system, they are acting in bad faith. They could be subject to disciplinary proceedings by courts. What we are not going to do is take unrelated claims out of the arbitration contract. So if you have got an hour-and-wage dispute with the employer, you make a sexual harassment, sexual assault claim, the hour-and-wage dispute stays under arbitration unless it is related. That is the goal.
I hope people won't game the system. I hope it will bring about the reform we are all hoping for: to make it harder to hide these problems in the workplace and easier to get justice without gaming the system.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. GRAHAM. I will be real quick.
Senator Schumer, thank you for making this happen. You made sure it would come up today, we would get a voice vote.
Senator Ernst has been great.
Kirsten, it has been a hell of a ride. We talked to Microsoft about 3 or 4 years ago about this. They jumped onboard and started changing it internally.
I have heard from the Chamber. I am open-minded about making sure we don't hurt business. It does not hurt business to make sure that people who are harassed in the workplace get treated fairly. It is better for business.
I just want to say, this shows that we can function up here, that we are listening to the world as it is. So the days of taking sexual harassment and sexual assault claims and burying them in the basement of arbitration are over.
Arbitration has its place between business. It can be a good thing. But when you sign a document--multiple pages--just to get a job, you really don't know what you are signing. We are saying, you are not going to sign away your life in terms of having your day in court if somebody treats you poorly. You still have got to prove your case. The defendant has robust due process rights, which they should, but the abuse of arbitration that perpetuates sexual harassment and sexual assault in the workplace is soon to be done away with.
Thank you, Senator Schumer.
Thank you, Senator Gillibrand.
And to all of my colleagues on the Republican side, thank you.
This is not bad for business. This is good for America. Vote on H.R. 4445
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source