Originally from: AAA Handbook on Employment Arbitration and ADR - 2nd Edition

One of the most controversial issues affecting employment law today is the use of mandatory arbitration to resolve workplace disputes and claims. In recent years employees have required as a condition of employment that employees must agree to arbitrate claims or disputes arising from their jobs, including claims based on statutory rights against discrimination, rather than having their day in court.

In more recent years, as the number of employment discrimination claims brought under federal statute had increased significantly, employers have had to deal with enormous time consumption and expense in litigating these claims while further translates into disruption in the workplace, lowering of employee morale and injury to the employers’ reputation.1