Workers Rights Are Good For Business
In May 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that businesses can require workers, as a term of their employment, to give up their rights to participate in class action lawsuits. As David Weil reports in his recent article in the Harvard Business Review, this puts in jeopardy the United States’ long-held tradition of giving workers a voice in how they are treated.
Weil makes the case that strong workers’ rights contribute to strong companies by helping those companies identify bad managers or personal practices and also reducing turnover, which can be very costly to companies with highly-skilled employees. Weil also points out that workers’ rights, collective bargaining, and worker class action lawsuits are an important way to enforce existing workplace laws, particularly at a time when state and federal investigative resources are grossly underfunded.
The Supreme Court’s May decision sets a dangerous precedent that may ultimately have a deleterious impact on business for years to come.
Here is a link to Weil’s entire article: https://hbr.org/2018/06/workers-shouldnt-have-to-sign-away-their-rights-to-class-action-lawsuits
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