The Arbitration Fairness Act of 2011 is a proposed law in the US Congress to reverse the effects of 14 Penn Plaza LLC v. Pyett[1] and AT&T Mobility v.
[2] Both judgments held, 5 judges to 4 dissenting justices, that employees and consumers were not entitled to claim for rights in public courts if they had agreed to arbitration in a collective or individual agreement.
1873] Archived 2012-06-12 at the Wayback Machine by Representative Henry “Hank” Johnson [D-GA] The bill, first introduced to Congress in 2007,[3] leaves arbitration provisions in collective bargaining agreements between employers and labor unions unaffected “except that no such arbitration provision shall have the effect of waiving the right of an employee to seek judicial enforcement of a [federal or state law, or federal or state Constitutional] right or related public policy.
[5] The bill‘s “findings” section states that:[6]*Most consumers and employees have little or no meaningful choice whether to submit their claims to arbitration.
The House Judiciary Committee referred the bill to the Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law on June 1, 2011.