Seventh Circuit Issues Epic Opinion on Access to Justice for Workers

Here is the New York Times’ coverage of the opinion in Lewis v. Epic Systems. There, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that an employer cannot compel employees to sign away their right to collectively petition a court for redress. The Court found that arbitration agreements of the kind before it – in which an employer attempts to confine dispute resolution with employees to a private, extrajudicial process and prohibit collective action – violated the National Labor Relations Act in which “Congress’s purpose was ‘to equalize the bargaining power of the employee with that of his employer by allowing employees to band together in confronting an employer regarding the terms and conditions of their employment.'”