The Supreme Court Did Workers a Favor

On its surface, the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Epic Systems v. Lewis, handed down Monday, looks like a significant defeat for workers. In ruling that companies can require employees to resolve contract disputes through arbitration, rather than class-action lawsuits, the Court limited the ability of workers to band together in court to pursue overtime and other statutory claims. Yet Epic Systems may well prove beneficial to workers, a qualified blessing in disguise.

Class actions enable lawyers to bring suits on behalf of large numbers of similarly situated claimants. The Epic Systems decision, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, rejects a 2010 attempt by the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency dealing with union organization and collective bargaining, to prohibit non-union employers from using so-called "class action waivers" in employment contracts. Allowing employers to bar workers from bringing lawsuits collectively could potentially reduce their options for redress when their claims are too small to justify their own lawsuits. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dissent called on Congress to step in to protect workers’ right to collective litigation.