Waving your rights to sue,

[Carrot44]

We where all made to sign an agreement today (or get fired) that said we would not or our kids or their kids or our parents or anybody else related to us would never sue them or their employees. For any reason. Unless it was for a criminal act. That even includes sexual harassment.

We have to instead submit to binding arbitration through the AAA and we have to pay for it. Employer said this is quite common. I have never heard of it any of you or any ideas?

 

[waggy]

yeah arbritration is crap. and yes it is common.

 

[Regs]

Yeah It's very common.

Basically they're telling you if you don't like it, get another job.

Two parties usually carry the right to pick and choose how they want to handle legal disputes. Either by negotiation, mediation, arbitration, or litigation (what your employer wants to avoid). You wave your right to choose by signing their agreement. Think of it as a pre-nup. Though it's not exactly waving your right to sue.

It's not a total loss though. If they can't offer you a satisfying judgement or settlement, one where it would be down right insulting, you can then take it to litigation. But that would be for a judge to decide if they offered you a reasonable enough settlement before you could proceed to trial.



It's fair and it's there. To protect big corporations.

Big corps usually give you what you want and sometimes more. Really the whole point of arbitration is too keep the dispute behind close doors and away from the press.

 

[nweaver]

tbh, if it was something serious, I don't think that would stand up in court (they "strongarmed" you into signing that agreement). Just like the insurance waivers you have to sign. Those are to get folks to settle before suing, because they hold very little water in our legal system.

 

[flamingelephant]

I'm thinking "sign this or we fire you" would constitute entering a contract under duress and likely get tossed in a court. If they have you sign it when you start then thats a different story

 

[mugs]

You can wave your right to sue all you want, but as long as you don't waive it you're set.

 

[Greenman]

Originally posted by: flamingelephant
I'm thinking "sign this or we fire you" would constitute entering a contract under duress and likely get tossed in a court. If they have you sign it when you start then thats a different story

Bingo!

A contract signed under duress isn't binding. Of course proving duress is another matter.

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: Carrot44
We where all made to sign an agreement today (or get fired) that said we would not or our kids or their kids or our parents or anybody else related to us would never sue them or their employees. For any reason. Unless it was for a criminal act. That even includes sexual harassment.

We have to instead submit to binding arbitration through the AAA and we have to pay for it. Employer said this is quite common. I have never heard of it any of you or any ideas?

lol.. empty threats.. you can ALWAYS sue. whether the judge throws it out is another story

and arbitration is teh suck.

 

[senseamp]

Worthless contract, more to intimidate you from suing and weed out those who are already thinking about suing than anything else.

 

[sao123]

Originally posted by: Carrot44
We where all made to sign an agreement today (or get fired) that said we would not or our kids or their kids or our parents or anybody else related to us would never sue them or their employees. For any reason. Unless it was for a criminal act. That even includes sexual harassment.

We have to instead submit to binding arbitration through the AAA and we have to pay for it. Employer said this is quite common. I have never heard of it any of you or any ideas?

Um... last time i checked sexual harrassment is a criminal act...
this agreement is not enforceable.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

We actually had this come up during a meeting, someone asked "what happens if we don't sign this?". The HR person replied, "You already signed a paper saying we can change the terms and policies at any time, so this is just a formality.". So basically, according to the HR person, they can sell us into slavery in some third world country if they chose to.

 

[ggnl]

It's entirely possible to get a fair case in arbitration. Companies don't do it to get out of settlements, they do it because arbitration is confidential and usually binding, meaning no endless appeals process.

 

[Mxylplyx]

Your signing a contract that lacks consideration, which is defined as something you get in return for signing the contract. When the contract is signed upon employment, the consideration they offer is your actual job. In this case, allowing you to keep your current job is generally not considered adequate consideration. If they arent compensating you via money or other benefits, this contract could be invalidated by any half brained lawyer.

BTW, I'm not a lawyer, and I didnt stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Ok, listen up folks, the Supreme Court has already ruled on questions of this sort. An individual can not waive any rights guaranteed by the Constitution no matter what they sign. So, as mentioned before, this is just another attempt by Corporations to make exercising your rights so expensive that you'll give up.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Originally posted by: sao123

Originally posted by: Carrot44
We where all made to sign an agreement today (or get fired) that said we would not or our kids or their kids or our parents or anybody else related to us would never sue them or their employees. For any reason. Unless it was for a criminal act. That even includes sexual harassment.

We have to instead submit to binding arbitration through the AAA and we have to pay for it. Employer said this is quite common. I have never heard of it any of you or any ideas?

Um... last time i checked sexual harrassment is a criminal act...
this agreement is not enforceable.

harassment isn't criminal unless it rises to the level of assault or battery or indecency. Short of a coworker raping/exposing/touching they won't be charged with a crime and it's a civil matter.

 

[child of wonder]

My dad experienced something like this as well. When he learned he was being laid off at his last job they told him he had to sign an agreement that he would never sue them otherwise he would not get his severance package.

Whenever I start to wonder how that's legal, I remember that I haven't paid billions and billions of dollars to our politicians in campaign contributions and perks over the years so my rights as an average citizen are less than a big business' rights.

 

[mrrman]

not common at all...I would contact someone in the labor force 1st before signing that....that is BS

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: child of wonder
My dad experienced something like this as well. When he learned he was being laid off at his last job they told him he had to sign an agreement that he would never sue them otherwise he would not get his severance package.

Whenever I start to wonder how that's legal, I remember that I haven't paid billions and billions of dollars to our politicians in campaign contributions and perks over the years so my rights as an average citizen are less than a big business' rights.

What you described is standard operating procedure.

Your father was free to sue his heart out, but he didn't. He took the offer. The blame is purely upon your father and nobody else.

You aren't entitled to any kind of secerance at ALL. He was lucky he got something.

 

[child of wonder]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: child of wonder
My dad experienced something like this as well. When he learned he was being laid off at his last job they told him he had to sign an agreement that he would never sue them otherwise he would not get his severance package.

Whenever I start to wonder how that's legal, I remember that I haven't paid billions and billions of dollars to our politicians in campaign contributions and perks over the years so my rights as an average citizen are less than a big business' rights.

What you described is standard operating procedure.

Your father was free to sue his heart out, but he didn't. He took the offer. The blame is purely upon your father and nobody else.

You aren't entitled to any kind of secerance at ALL. He was lucky he got something.

Considering he had been working an average of 60 hours a week plus being on call 24/7 for 6 years because the company refused to hire more help yet continued to tell him they would, yes he was entitled to a severance package.

Someone made a lot of money by working him like a mule and it sure wasn't him.

And before you say it, he had been looking for a new job the last 2 years. Unfortunately, it's hard to find work in smaller markets when someone has over 25 years of experience and commands a large salary in his field.

Did he have anything to sue them about? No. But I find it unethical and disgusting that they would dangle a carrot like that over someone they just told was being laid off with no warning but he had to promise never to hold them accountable IF they had done something wrong to him.

 

[patentman]

Originally posted by: Carrot44
We where all made to sign an agreement today (or get fired) that said we would not or our kids or their kids or our parents or anybody else related to us would never sue them or their employees. For any reason. Unless it was for a criminal act. That even includes sexual harassment.

We have to instead submit to binding arbitration through the AAA and we have to pay for it. Employer said this is quite common. I have never heard of it any of you or any ideas?

<----------- soon to be lawyer

arbitration agreements are generally ok

that said, contracts for waiver of liability can be unenforceable as unconscionable

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

If they want you to sign it or you're fired, tell them you'll sign it if they provide written clarrification that ou are signing because they threatened your job, if they won't do it don't sign, when they fire yuo, you sue them for wrongful termination. Even in right to work states where a company can fire you if they feel like it, they can not do so based on you standing up for your rights gauranteed to you under local, state and national laws. It's like firing someone because she wouldn't give the boss a blow job.

By getting you to sign this they are hoping that 99% of the people that sign it will just sign it and be done with it. the 1%ers will rebuke and the company will make exception for them because they do not want this to go to court or have any publicity. Also, by having you sign such a thing, something is obviously wrong at your company otherwise they wouldn't have instituted such a draconian policy.

 

[treemonkey]

Record them threatening your job and post it on youtube?

 

[Darwin333]

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
If they want you to sign it or you're fired, tell them you'll sign it if they provide written clarrification that ou are signing because they threatened your job, if they won't do it don't sign, when they fire yuo, you sue them for wrongful termination. Even in right to work states where a company can fire you if they feel like it, they can not do so based on you standing up for your rights gauranteed to you under local, state and national laws. It's like firing someone because she wouldn't give the boss a blow job.

By getting you to sign this they are hoping that 99% of the people that sign it will just sign it and be done with it. the 1%ers will rebuke and the company will make exception for them because they do not want this to go to court or have any publicity. Also, by having you sign such a thing, something is obviously wrong at your company otherwise they wouldn't have instituted such a draconian policy.

A large number of companies, big and small (especially if they are smart) make their employees sign statements like that. A few may use it for nefarious reasons but the vast majority do it out of fear/intelligence. Its not to hard for a company that does $5mil /year gross to be scared of these multi-million dollar judgements that have been handed out by Juries for rather trivial things. I just heard of a company here getting sued by one of their employees because he walked outside after clocking out and got his ass kicked by two guys by his car (30 yards away and out of view of the people in the store). Turns out the guys where waiting on him because he owed them money for drugs but that evidently isn't important. The owner is being sued for 5 million for not providing adequate security (from his drug dealers).

Its actually possible that the Jury will award this guy a sizable sum of money. Most people, like you at least sounded, are "anti-corporation". The problem is that vast majority of companies and corporations are not bad and are not "huge". If the jury awards this guy half of what he is asking the owner will lose his business. Hell, just the court costs are going to cost this guy a percentage of his income.

With arbitration you can somewhat protect yourself from insane jury awards for things that don't deserve a 5% of that.

 

[Carrot44]

They have all ready fired those unwilling to sign it. And I do live in a so called right to work state. Ooops thats wrong...

 

[sjwaste]

Just a thought, and I'm only a law student, but you signing this can't bind your family members from suing. They didn't sign anything...

Besides, if you get hurt on the job and the company doesn't remedy, but dangles this paper and says you can't sue. Well, first there was no consideration for the "contract" and second, it's probably unconscionable. At the very least, you agreed to go to arb, and if you get an awful decision there, you can appeal.

Of course, maybe your wife sues for loss of consortium. In federal district court. Since the company probably made you sign this to avoid discovery and bad press, the filing of this suit brings you some swift settlement offers...