Have you been forced to sign away your rights? Let us know!

Have you ever been forced to sign a contract that prevents you from having your day in court if your employer commits wage theft, sexual harassment or discrimination or denies you overtime, forces you to work in unsafe working conditions or other workplace violations? If you have, you’re not alone. More than half of Maine employers require employees to sign these so-called “forced arbitration” agreements as a condition of their employment, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute.

Instead of having a public process to hold employers accountable, workers under these agreements must agree to resolve potential claims against the company in a private arbitration process that is heavily tilted in favor of the employer. Forced arbitration agreements are designed to suppress claims, suppress workers from acting as a class and weaken overall enforcement of workers' rights.