On February 10, the Senate unanimously approved H.R. 4445, the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, which passed the House earlier this week on Monday, February 7. The bill now heads to President Joe Biden, who will sign the bill into law in the coming days.
As a reminder, this bill, once signed into law, will prevent employers from mandating arbitration or preventing class-action lawsuits within their employment contracts for any sexual assault or sexual harassment claims in the workplace. This will supersede pre-existing provisions related to arbitration and apply to any case brought via federal, state, or tribal laws. It will also transfer the authority to determine the enforceability of an employment agreement in sexual assault cases to the appropriate court rather than an arbitrator. The provisions apply prospectively only, not retroactively, to:
- Disputes involving a nonconsensual sexual act or sexual contact;
- Unwelcome sexual advances;
- Unwanted physical contact that is sexual in nature, including assault;
- Unwanted sexual attention, including unwanted sexual comments and propositions for sexual activity;
- Conditioning professional, educational, consumer, health care or long-term care benefits on sexual activity; and
- Retaliation for rejecting unwanted sexual attention.
For additional information on the House passage of this legislation, please reference our previous alert. If you have any questions about this legislation, please contact the Michael Best Strategies team.
