Mary Langenfeld
Jennifer Fultz in front of EGS Customer Care, Rockford, Illinois.
On September 12, 2016, Jennifer Fultz was summoned from her job at a call center in Rockford, Illinois, and ordered to sign a form relinquishing her employee rights.
The form was similar to agreements being foisted on millions of American workers. It pledged her to resolve all workplace claims and disputes through arbitration and not “class action, collective action, and representative action procedures.”
As reported last December by The Progressive, Fultz refused and was fired. Police were called to escort her from the building.
Now a judge has ruled in her favor.
Arbitration is a process often controlled by the employer, and can make fighting workplace grievances impractical. In the employment realm, the boom in mandatory arbitration has hamstrung efforts by nonunion workers to bring collective action against unfair wage and hour practices, workplace discrimination, and unjust termination.
On October 18 Melissa M. Olivero, an Administrative Law Judge with the National Labor Relations Board, ruled on complaints filed by Fultz and another worker, Clarise Washington, against Alorica Inc., a California-based company. Fultz worked at EGS Customer Care of Rockford, which Alorica owns through its subsidiary Expert Global Solutions. Washington, who was fired by Alorica for the same reason on the same day, worked at a plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Both Alorica’s demands and its terminations were deemed by Olivero to violate the National Labor Relations Act. “Respondent has engaged in unfair labor practices affecting commerce within the meaning of [this law],” Olivera wrote. Alorica was ordered to “offer [Fultz and Washington] reinstatement and make them whole for any loss of earnings and other benefits.”
“Nobody should lose their jobs because they engage in protected activities."
The case was filed on behalf of Fultz and Washington by Seth Goldstein, senior business representative of the Office and Professional Employees International Union, Local 153, based in New York City. Goldstein, in an interview with The Progressive, says the judge’s decision upholds an important principle: “Nobody should lose their jobs because they engage in protected activities under the act.”
Fultz agrees, telling The Progressive she is “relieved [the judge] made a decision that protects employee’s rights—not only my rights but my coworkers’ rights.”
Throughout the nation, millions of workers and consumers are being required to accept language requiring them to pursue any grievances through arbitration, rather than collective action. These agreements, known as mandatory arbitration, were the subject of an article in The Progressive last December.
In the article, Fultz asked, “Why should anyone be faced with that kind of choice? To choose between supporting your family or giving up your employment rights?”
That’s a good question, one that is now before the highest court in the land. On October 2, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on several employment-related cases concerning mandatory arbitration clauses. Previously, the Obama Administration had sided in favor of the workers in these cases.
The Trump Administration switched allegiances and is siding with employers.
Goldstein is optimistic that the court will not completely side with employers. One of the lower federal courts weighing in on the matter, he says, rejected the notion that employees could be made, through a binding arbitration agreement, to forfeit their right to file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. “You should not be able to waive your right to go to a federal agency for protection,” he says.
Fultz, a single mother, has since found another job—“two, actually,” she notes. She works fulltime for a technology company as a data entry clerk and has a part-time job working some nights and weekends at an electronic retail store. She hopes the outcome of her case empowers other workers: “If you feel that something is not right about what your employer is doing, stand up and say something.”