I 
115TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 7109 
To prohibit forced arbitration in employment disputes, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 30, 2018 
Mr. NADLER (for himself, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Mr. CICILLINE, Mr. JOHN-
SON of Georgia, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. CUMMINGS, Ms. MAXINE WATERS of 
California, Ms. LOFGREN, Ms. JACKSON
LEE, Mr. DEUTCH, Mr. 
JEFFRIES, Ms. BASS, Mr. GUTIE´RREZ, Mr. SWALWELL of California, Mr. 
TAKANO, Ms. BONAMICI, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Ms. WASSERMAN 
SCHULTZ, Ms. HANABUSA, Ms. NORTON, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Ms. 
CLARKE of New York, Mr. RYAN of Ohio, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. 
MEEKS, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mr. VELA, Mr. COURTNEY, Ms. DELAURO, 
Mr. NORCROSS, Ms. KAPTUR, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Mrs. DINGELL, 
Mr. DESAULNIER, Ms. BARRAGA´N, Mr. HASTINGS, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, 
Mr. LYNCH, Mr. SOTO, Ms. BROWNLEY of California, Ms. LEE, Mr. 
GOMEZ, Mrs. DAVIS of California, Ms. ESHOO, Ms. SHEA-PORTER, Mr. 
TONKO, Mr. GARAMENDI, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. DANNY K. 
DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. ELLISON, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. WELCH, Mr. BRENDAN 
F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania, Mr. MCEACHIN, Mr. KENNEDY, Ms. SPEIER, 
Mr. CARSON of Indiana, and Mr. TED LIEU of California) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and 
in addition to the Committee on Education and the Workforce, for a pe-
riod to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for con-
sideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the com-
mittee concerned 
A BILL 
To prohibit forced arbitration in employment disputes, and 
for other purposes. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Restoring Justice for 
Workers Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Millions of employees are currently forced to 
accept, as a condition of employment, contractual 
provisions that block their access to the courts or 
prohibit them from joining together with other em-
ployees to seek joint, class, or collective relief for vio-
lations of their rights. This has led to widespread 
nonenforcement of employees’ rights and has per-
mitted significant violations of those rights to con-
tinue unabated. 
(2) Most employees have little or no meaningful 
choice regarding whether to accept these provisions. 
Often, employees are not even aware that they have 
given up the right to seek recourse in court or have 
waived their right to join other employees in joint, 
class, or collective actions. 
(3) The Federal Arbitration Act (now enacted 
as chapter 1 of title 9, United States Code) was in-
tended to apply to disputes between commercial enti-
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ties of generally similar sophistication and bar-
gaining power. Despite this congressional intent, the 
Supreme Court of the United States has interpreted 
the Federal Arbitration Act so that it now extends 
to employment disputes. 
(4) The National Labor Relations Act (29 
U.S.C. 151 et seq.) protects employees’ right to en-
gage in concerted activities for the purpose of mu-
tual aid or protection. This was intended and long 
understood to encompass employees’ right to collec-
tively seek relief for violations of their workplace 
rights. However, contrary to the plain text of the 
law and congressional intent, the Supreme Court of 
the United States, in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, 
138 S. Ct. 1612 (2018), decided that employees may 
be forced, as a condition of employment, to waive 
their right to collectively litigate employment actions. 
(5) Forced individual dispute resolution under-
mines employees’ rights and exacerbates the inequal-
ity of bargaining power between employees and em-
ployers because joining a joint, class, or collective ac-
tion is often the only way employees can afford to 
seek relief for violations of their rights. 
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(6) Employees who are forced to submit to indi-
vidual dispute resolution often seek no redress at all 
due to well-founded fear of retaliation. 
(7) Protecting the rights of employees to indi-
vidually or concertedly seek relief for violations of 
their labor rights through the justice system protects 
the public interest and safeguards commerce from 
injury. 
SEC. 3. PURPOSES. 
The purposes of this Act are to— 
(1) prohibit predispute arbitration agreements 
that require arbitration of employment disputes; 
(2) prohibit retaliation against employees for 
refusing to arbitrate employment disputes; 
(3) 
provide 
protections 
to 
ensure 
that 
postdispute arbitration agreements are truly vol-
untary and with the informed consent of employees; 
and 
(4) amend the National Labor Relations Act to 
prohibit agreements and practices that interfere with 
employees’ right to collectively litigate employment 
disputes. 
SEC. 4. ARBITRATION OF EMPLOYMENT DISPUTES. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Title 9 of the United States Code 
is amended by adding at the end the following: 
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‘‘CHAPTER 4—ARBITRATION OF 
EMPLOYMENT DISPUTES 
‘‘Sec. 
‘‘401. Definitions. 
‘‘402. Validity and enforceability. 
‘‘§ 401. Definitions 
‘‘In this chapter— 
‘‘(1) the terms ‘commerce’, ‘employee’, and ‘em-
ployer’ have the meanings given the terms in section 
3 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 
U.S.C. 203); 
‘‘(2) the term ‘employment dispute’ means a 
dispute between an employer and an employee aris-
ing from or relating to the employment of the em-
ployee, and includes disputes that arise under com-
mon law or from the alleged violation of the Con-
stitution of the United States, the constitution of a 
State, or a Federal, State, territorial, county, or mu-
nicipal statute; 
‘‘(3) the term ‘predispute arbitration agree-
ment’ means any agreement to arbitrate a dispute 
that had not yet arisen at the time of the making 
of the agreement; and 
‘‘(4) the term ‘postdispute arbitration agree-
ment’ means any agreement to arbitrate a dispute 
that arose before the time of the making of the 
agreement. 
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‘‘§ 402. Validity and enforceability 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other chap-
ter of this title— 
‘‘(1) no predispute arbitration agreement shall 
be valid or enforceable if it requires arbitration of an 
employment dispute; 
‘‘(2) no postdispute arbitration agreement that 
requires arbitration of an employment dispute shall 
be valid or enforceable unless— 
‘‘(A) the agreement was not required by 
the employer, obtained by coercion or threat of 
adverse action, or made a condition of employ-
ment or any employment-related privilege or 
benefit; 
‘‘(B) each employee entering into the 
agreement was informed in writing using suffi-
ciently plain language likely to be understood by 
the average employee of— 
‘‘(i) the right of the employee under 
paragraph (3) to refuse to enter the agree-
ment without retaliation; and 
‘‘(ii) the protections under section 
8(a)(6) of the National Labor Relations 
Act (29 U.S.C. 158(a)(6)); 
‘‘(C) each employee entering into the 
agreement entered the agreement after a wait-
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ing period of not fewer than 45 days, beginning 
on the date on which the employee was provided 
both the final text of the agreement and the 
disclosures required under subparagraph (B); 
and 
‘‘(D) each employee entering into the 
agreement affirmatively consented to the agree-
ment in writing; and 
‘‘(3) no employer may retaliate or threaten to 
retaliate against an employee for refusing to enter 
into an agreement that provides for arbitration of an 
employment dispute. 
‘‘(b) STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS.—During the waiting 
period described in subsection (a)(2)(C), the statute of 
limitations for any claims that arise from or form the basis 
for the applicable employment dispute shall be tolled. 
‘‘(c) CIVIL ACTION.—Any person who is injured by 
reason of a violation of subsection (a)(3) may bring a civil 
action in the appropriate district court of the United 
States against the employer within 2 years of the violation, 
or within 3 years if such violation is willful. Relief granted 
in such an action shall include a reasonable attorney’s fee, 
other reasonable costs associated with maintaining the ac-
tion, and any appropriate relief authorized by section 
706(g) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e– 
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5(g)) or by section 1977A(b) of the Revised Statutes (42 
U.S.C. 1981a(b)). 
‘‘(d) APPLICABILITY.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—This chapter applies to em-
ployers and employees engaged in activity affecting 
commerce to the fullest extent permitted by the 
United States Constitution. An issue as to whether 
this chapter applies to an arbitration agreement 
shall be determined under Federal law. The applica-
bility of this chapter to an agreement to arbitrate 
and the validity and enforceability of an agreement 
to which this chapter applies shall be determined by 
a court, rather than an arbitrator, regardless of 
whether any contractual provision delegates such 
matters to the arbitrator and irrespective of whether 
the party resisting arbitration challenges the arbitra-
tion agreement specifically or in conjunction with 
other terms of the contract containing such agree-
ment. 
‘‘(2) COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENTS.— 
Nothing in this chapter shall apply to any arbitra-
tion provision in a contract between an employer and 
a labor organization, except that no such arbitration 
provision shall have the effect of waiving the right 
of an employee to seek judicial enforcement of a 
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‘‘(6)(A) to enter into or attempt to enforce any 
agreement, express or implied, whereby prior to a 
dispute to which the agreement applies, an employee 
undertakes or promises not to pursue, bring, join, 
litigate, or support any kind of joint, class, or collec-
tive legal action arising from or relating to the em-
ployment of such employee in any forum that, but 
for such agreement, is of competent jurisdiction; or 
‘‘(B) to retaliate or threaten to retaliate against 
an employee for refusing to undertake or promise 
not to pursue, bring, join, litigate, or support any 
kind of joint, class, or collective legal action arising 
from or relating to the employment of such em-
ployee: 
Provided, That any agreement that violates this 
paragraph or results from a violation of this para-
graph shall be to such extent unenforceable and 
void: Provided further, That this paragraph shall not 
apply to any agreement embodied in or expressly 
permitted by a contract between an employer and a 
labor organization.’’. 
SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE. 
This Act, and the amendments made by this Act, 
shall take effect on the date of enactment of this Act and 
shall apply with respect to any dispute or claim that arises 
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on or after such date, including any dispute or claim to 
which an agreement predating such date applies. 
Æ 
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