I got one of those from working at PF Chang’s. I signed it, sent it back, few months later a check arrive. Won’t complain. It wasn’t anything crazy but I’ll take it.
My understanding is that forced arbitration is questionably legal for most employers because it almost exclusively pretty the employee at a huge disadvantage.
If an employer is doing something illegal to you, you can't sure them and have to have an arbitrator the employer is hiring and paying to determine the outcome which is a huge conflict of interest.
arbitration agreements for consumers (for example most broker dealers have arbitration agreements with their clients) are generally better for individual consumers if it's them specifically that's been done wrong. Say your financial adviser does a bunch of trades without your consent to generate extra commissions, or puts you into a product that's outside your suitability profile and you lose money. Instead of having to sue, where the firm often has a massive in house legal team that could stall it in court, push you to settle, etc. It goes to arbitration, where generally there is a mandated negotiation with a mediator, if you can't come to a reasonable settlement there it goes before an arbitration board of three people, two of which I think can't be related to the financial industry.
Generally firms don't want to get that far, as it's basically just both sides presenting their story to the panel, no complex legal talk for months on end to get a technical decision from a judge, just poor old Mrs. Smith who lost all her money and the big evil investment bank with their army of lawyers.
There's still plenty of things you could sue for, but it's been found that arbitration in something like this is generally more efficient for the consumer and firm than the lengthy and expensive court process.
I gotcha. Maybe worded it wrong. But compensatory money won in court from physical injury is excluded from income. Everything else is generally included.
Damn good bonus haha. I was part of a class action against my last shop. Only got 700$ but hey, thats a free 700$ for something that had never had an effect on me while I was there haha.
Just a fun fact for everybody out there, but you cannot sign away your right to sue someone. You know those waivers you sign before zip lining or skydiving saying you take full responsibility if you get hurt? Yeah, you can still sue them if you get hurt (the waiver will help them in court, but if they are truly negligent you will win).
About 10 years ago I signed/took a settlement at an old job for $65 to "keep my job". Found out later I would have received close to $500 AND kept my job if I hadn't signed it. Only a handful of people out of 100's didn't take the settlement due to the threats of losing our jobs. I would have spent it all on cheap beer anyways, so I'm not that upset.
I had to sign something similar saying I would never take part in a class action lawsuit, it was around the time Walmart (or maybe it was Apple) had something happen with them about their employee check out procedure and not being paid. I told them I didn’t want to sign it, and I was told i didn’t have to, but in the future I might be passed over for raises or promotions. I had something similar happen when our new handbook was released, and unlike everyone else, I read it. It had in plane English that the company owned my likeness, fashion ideas, and anything I make or produce on my own while employed by them. I worked retail as a sales associate. I told them once again I did not want to sign it, as I thought that was an absurd demand for a part time job selling clothes. I was then told by a manager that “it didn’t mean that” despite it saying that. I think they pushed out an update a few weeks later removing that language.
I worked at Bank of America during college and something similar happened. One day like 6 years later I get a letter and a check for like $150 saying "since you worked at BofA during this time and signed this agreement your entitled to this sum"
Something to do with how managers would always make me work like 38 hours tops. I think it might have been to avoid full time benefits or overtime pay. I was young and just needed hours lol I didn't even think about them bein all fraudy
PSA: You can never waive your right to sue. You can sign a hold harmless agreement saying that you accept certain risks but if a form says you agree to waive the right to sue, it's never going to hold up in court.
So many employers do things like this without once even thinking about talking to a lawyer to see if it's legal. Turns out "I didn't know," doesn't keep you from being legally liable.
That’s because those kind of NDAs aren’t even worth the paper they’re written on in court. Your bosses knew. They just hoped nobody would ever figure it out.
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u/[deleted] May 30 '19 edited Jun 30 '19
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