Supreme Court Strips Workers of Wage Theft Protection

Everything we do at Loan Lawyers is about protecting members of the public from abuse and harassment. Sometimes we can write about good legal news in South Florida and around the country. Sometimes we write about bad news. Today there is some bad news. The Supreme Court just entered a truly terrible decision with serious consequences for employees around the country, the case of Epic System Corp v. Lewis. The case considered a supposed conflict between the Federal Arbitration Act, a law passed in 1925 and the National Labor Relation Act of 1935 and whether or not a clause in a contract which prevented employees from banding together for a class-action arbitration against their employer was actually enforceable. The decision was a 5-4 split between the Justices and has been widely criticized as partisan and political in nature. According to this decision, employers can force their employees to sign contracts which waive their right to individual lawsuits, class action lawsuits or class action arbitrations. Arbitration cases are notoriously business-friendly and the entire process can be expensive and time consuming. If an employer only steals a little bit from the wages of an employee, what rational person would risk thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in a lawsuit on their own or in an individual arbitration against a multimillion or multi-billion dollar company which can hire a team of lawyers to fight against them?

This horrendous decision incentivizes large employers to steal just a little bit from all of their employees, leaving the employees with limited options to recover it. Justice Ginsburg in her scathing dissent wrote at length about how the Court’s decision will allow wage-theft to go unpunished and only encourage bad-actors.

If you are a Florida resident and your employer is taking your wages, what does this mean for you? This decision does not affect all instances of wage theft and it has no effect at all if you have not signed a contract with an arbitration provision. If you believe you have been the victim of wage theft, contact a lawyer, our office, like most offices who assist with such matters will give you a free consultation to discuss what your rights are and what we may be able to do to help.

For more information about FDCPA, please visit our website here.

Loan Lawyers has helped over 5,000 South Florida homeowners and consumers with their debt problems, we have saved over 1,800 homes from foreclosure, eliminated $100,000,000 in mortgage principal and consumer debt, and have collected millions of dollars on behalf of our clients due to bank, loan servicer, and debt collector violations, negligence and fraud. Contact us for a free consultation to see how we may be able to help you.

This document has been provided for informational purposes only and is not intended and should not be construed to constitute legal advice. Please consult your attorney in connection with any legal issues related to the matters discussed in this article as the applicability of state, local and federal laws may vary.