• Don't Let Law Firms Hide Harassment and Discrimination
    We believe these contracts are harmful because they shift claims related to mistreatment at work, such as discrimination, sexual harassment, or denials of family leave, out of court and into secretive proceedings that often unfairly favor the employer. Students who are expected to sign these agreements may have no notice of these policies until after they have accepted their offers. As a result, they have no meaningful power to negotiate these terms or seek alternative employment. NALP is uniquely positioned to gather and distribute this information to law students. We hope that NALP will use its influence to collect and disseminate this information, which is critical to us as we make important decisions about our futures. Specifically, we urge NALP to adopt the following questions: 1: Does your firm require any employees (including summer associates, first-year associates, paralegals, or other non-lawyer staff) to sign a mandatory arbitration contract, regarding certain or any types of disputes, as a condition of employment? 2: If yes, does this mandatory arbitration agreement include a non-disclosure or confidentiality agreement which encompasses workplace misconduct? As the dominant organization in legal recruiting and career development, NALP’s leadership in this matter can effect meaningful change because it will empower students to make career choices that align more closely with their values. Thank you for your consideration and we look forward to hearing your thoughts on this issue.
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    Created by Pipeline Parity Project Picture
  • Voices are louder together - Stop all harassment at Delta Air Lines, Inc.
    During my time at Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA) the culture was extremely tolerant of a sexual environment and acceptable harassment. Many employees across the company in all different departments have expressed similar situations and environments. Several employees including supervisors attempted to report incidents to the Station Manager and human resource department. After reporting incidents, employees were fired, harassed and/or retaliated against. When this action by Delta was acceptable, other employees have felt powerless to speak up for themselves and address the situation. HR does not do enough to protect employees from workplace harm. One employee cannot fight against these big bullies alone. Employees cannot be afraid to speak up. I personally have lost my career and my life stopped once I was subjected to sexual assault at work. This should not have to happen to one more person! Delta must be held accountable for its harassment problem and create a safe, respectful work environment. (these are views and opinions of the author based on personal experience)
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    Created by Jenny Dawson
  • Darden: Stop requiring employees to sign arbitration forms
    This is important because employees are not clear on what they're signing and are also not expecting to be harassed or discriminated against. Employees are completely unaware that they are signing away their rights to justice if ever they have negative experiences. Companies aren't creating an environment that will hold perpetrators for sexual harassment accountable for their actions, which makes them bold and fearless in their pursuits. I was an employee for 5 months at Longhorn Steakhouse. There were multiple of my coworkers that touched me inappropriately and spoke to me inappropriately. I was disgusted. But I was also not in a position to lose my job. There were times that I would be really aggravated with their continuous actions and speak up and I would be sent home early. Eventually my hours became shorter and shorter, to the point that I would be scheduled for only one or two days a week. If I would've known that when I signed those papers during orientation that I would not be able to get an attorney to represent me in court, and it exempts them from all legal responsibilities in such a case, I would have never signed. And I think anyone applying for a position at this company needs to know what they're signing.
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    Created by Former Longhorn Server
  • Papa John's: Address sexual harassment
    I am a former employee of Papa John's Pizza. I was encouraged, then agreed to be promoted, as AGM last year. I realized through our personal payroll program that I was not getting paid my promised wage. This was brought to my manager’s attention, as well the Area Supervisor’s, eliciting the same response that they will “take care of it.” A few weeks of patiently waiting for a correction and following the chain of command, there was none and I eventually had to call the payroll department myself for retroactive pay. Earlier this year leading up to this from an extremely poor, hostile work environment not only from coworkers, but managers, I was sexually assaulted by my superior while working as an AGM. After being refused from my store manager to Human Resources, I was never offered any paperwork or advice to file my claim for this incident. Following the proper procedure(s) of bringing this to my superior's attention multiple times, I was fired in retaliation and informally transferred to another store location. As a young female, this is a completely different generation that we are bringing into the workforce, speaking up about these issues. For the millions too afraid to truly express themselves, I would like to bring awareness towards this issue to prevent this from becoming a precedent. This is about the laws that we can’t ignore and especially stay silent about. This is not just about me. This is other people. The Department of Human Resources needs to be called out. There are thousands of employees getting hurt from the blind eye of this department not doing anything about these types of claims. They don’t care. Something needs to be done. I am seeking stories from any current/former employees who have experienced discrimination, been fired for retaliation, or anything similar: please come forward, comment below sharing your story, help bring action and create awareness for better employee policy change(s) at Papa John’s Pizza.
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    Created by Scared Acanthisitta
  • Harvard Law School Calls to End the Secrecy on Harassment and Discrimination
    An Open Letter to the Harvard Law Community on Employer Mandatory Arbitration, Non-Disclosure, and Class-Action Waiver Agreements As students, faculty, and alumni, we are proud of Harvard Law School’s robust anti-discrimination policy and commitment to the pursuit of equity and justice. Today, we are calling on Harvard to honor this commitment. To do so, we ask that Harvard require all employers recruiting on campus protect the rights of their employees by ensuring that, should an employee experience harassment, discrimination, or workplace abuse, they are able to come forward and seek redress in court. As has been recently revealed, several prominent law firms that recruit at Harvard’s Early Interview Program (EIP) have been forcing incoming summer associates to sign a mandatory arbitration agreement, with an accompanying non-disclosure agreement (NDA), as a condition of employment. These secret arbitration agreements and non-disclosure provisions cover all employment-related claims between the employee and the firm, including complaints of sexual harassment and other forms of gender, race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability discrimination prohibited by Title VII and other applicable civil rights laws. Fortunately, a group of law professors, including HLS Climenko Fellow Ian Samuel, focused attention and public pressure on these policies. In response to the public outcry, several firms announced their intention to drop the NDA and mandatory arbitration requirement not only for summer associates, but also for all associates and staff. [1][2] Along with similar student movements at peer institutions, including Berkeley Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, Yale Law School, we ask that Harvard protect its students as they begin their legal careers. No industry is free from sexual harassment, discrimination, or workplace abuse — and the legal profession is no exception. [3] Secret arbitration and overboard NDAs hinder our ability to end harassment and discrimination by silencing employees who experience it, forcing them into secretive proceedings that are stacked against victims, and effectively covering up workplace abuse. [4] Harvard Law’s Office of Career Services already prohibits “all employers using the facilities and services of the Office of Career Services” from discriminating “against any person on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital or parental status, disability, source of income, or status as a veteran." [5] However, HLS has no explicit policy requiring employers recruiting on campus to preserve the rights of students to bring harassment or discrimination claims in court and to publicly discuss these claims. The practice of silencing employees through coercive contracts has a disproportionate impact on those the anti-discrimination policy is intended to protect, defeating the purpose of our HLS policy and any commitment to solving the diversity pipeline problem. While each individual student lacks the necessary bargaining power to refuse such mandatory agreements, HLS could remedy this collective action problem by adopting the following policy. We respectfully request that the Office of Career Services require that all employers who recruit through the EIP, the Spring Interview Program (SIP), and the Public Interest Interview Program (PIIP) remove from their contracts conditions that require any employee, including associates, staff, or summer associates, to agree as a general condition of employment to: (1) a mandatory arbitration agreement, (2) a non-disclosure agreement that covers discrimination, harassment, or other workplace misconduct, or (3) a class-action waiver. We further ask that Harvard issue an anonymous workplace climate survey to all students returning from summer employment, to gather key data about workplace sexual harassment that will inform our continuing efforts to end discrimination in the legal profession. By enforcing this measure, Harvard will take a clear stand for its students and alumni and will reinforce the law school’s commitment to the pursuit of justice for all. Merely disclosing which firms require employees to sign secret arbitration agreements will fail to achieve our shared goal of ending discrimination in the legal profession. Disclosure simply place the burden on students at risk of discrimination —principally women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, and people with disabilities—to opt out of important professional and intellectual opportunities. Mandatory disclosure would perpetuate the burden placed on women and others to select out of opportunities that provide pathways to the highest positions in the legal profession. Our aim is to eliminate the inequities in the legal profession, not to exacerbate them; for this reason, we believe that a clear set of standards for all organizations that recruit on campus is the only outcome that lives up to Harvard’s values of equity and access to justice. HLS has historically taken a leadership role in fighting discrimination in the legal profession. We call on Harvard to do so again, and adopt these policies in order to fulfill its mission “to educate leaders who contribute to the advancement of justice and the well-being of society.” [1] https://twitter.com/Orrick/status/978344236725735425 [2] https://takecareblog.com/blog/munger-tolles-proves-why-we-still-need-metoo [3] https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/house_of_delegates/2018_hod_midyear_302.docx [4] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/business/dealbook/arbitration-everywhere-stacking-the-deck-of-justice.html [5] https://hls.harvard.edu/dept/ocs/employers/employer-recruiting-policies-and-guidelines/ For more information, contact us at: [email protected]
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  • Arbitration and Nondisclosure Requirements by Law Firms
    These types of agreements may be legal, but they cut against core Georgetown values. Our community is grounded in a Jesuit tradition that supports the well-being of the whole person—the “cura personalis.” And the law school’s motto is, “Law is but the means; justice is the end.” In order to live up to these values, Georgetown must do its part to end the use of mandatory arbitration and NDAs in ways that silence the victims of sexual harassment and workplace abuses. [1] https://takecareblog.com/blog/munger-tolles-proves-why-we-still-need-metoo [2] https://twitter.com/Orrick/status/978344236725735425 [3] https://twitter.com/isamuel/status/979375191175450625 [4] https://goo.gl/FYujGs Contacts: Stephen Schultze ([email protected]), Rachel Lee ([email protected]), Nicholas Wertsch ([email protected])
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  • I’m fighting sexual harassment at Comcast
    We can no longer be silent about the sexual harassment that may be occurring in Comcast locations. I worked at Comcast call centers in Washington, DC, then Silver Spring, MD, and finally Millersville, MD from 2007 through 2012. At the Millersville location, I felt so uncomfortable around certain male coworkers that I often used the restroom on the other side of the building just so I could avoid being in their presence. When I finally had the courage to report these incidents to our human resources department, I felt that my managers and the colleagues that I had reported retaliated against me. I received threats walking down the call center hallways and was likely singled out during the then upcoming mid-year review. I felt afraid and trapped. I loved my job and I was good at it. My goal was to give customers a positive experience with Comcast and the company’s services, reversing the negative image many have associated with cable companies. But this became increasingly difficult for me to fulfill in Comcast’s toxic work environment. Comcast must act swiftly to address this problem, by conducting an independent third party review of its sexual harassment policies and employee experiences. In conjunction with solutions from this review, I believe the following changes will help employees like me who may still be dealing with harassment at Comcast: 1. HR representatives should be present at call centers and large Comcast workplaces 2. Protect Comcast employees from retaliation for reporting sexual harassment to HR 3. Fire perpetrators of sexual harassment in Comcast workplaces We all deserve a workplace where we can come in and do good work without distraction. We deserve a workplace where we feel safe and empowered to make positive contributions to the company. I believe Comcast’s lax implementation of its sexual harassment policies creates a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety for many employees, especially women employees. At the end of the day, the pervasive culture of sexual harassment I experienced at Comcast is bad for business. As an employee of Comcast, my work performance suffered as a result of consistent experiences of sexual harassment. While working at the call center, Comcast customers likely could even hear the sexual and inappropriate comments being made in the background. Most importantly, acts of sexual harassment violate employees’ dignity as human beings. Many Comcast employees may have felt powerless to speak up for themselves and address the situation because HR was not doing enough to protect us from workplace harm. Comcast must be held accountable for its sexual harassment problem and create a safe, respectful work environment.
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    Created by Rylinda Rhodes Picture
  • End Sexual Abuse of International Students at Brisbane Airport
    I came to Australia in March on a student visa, and while studying here, I decided to take a job as a contract cleaner at Brisbane Airport. While working at the airport, I witnessed my employer harass and abuse several of my female colleagues. Until now, everyone was too afraid to speak out. That all changed last week, when five brave women came forward to alert authorities of harassment and sexual abuse they experienced at Brisbane Airport. These women are international students who say their employer forced himself on them in locked rooms, and threatened them with deportation if they resisted. He offered them rides home, then drove into dark alleys with an expectation of sexual favours. And in case there was any confusion about his intent, they say he openly and unapologetically fired any woman who resisted him. Right now, these women are scared of being kicked out of Australia for speaking out -- the very thing they were threatened with by their accused abuser. No one should be punished for alerting police of illegal abuse. As the contractor's employer, BAC needs to speak out in support of these workers remaining in Australia. All the women I work with know what this guy is like, and while he has never done anything to me, I was warned about him when I started working at the airport. I've seen so many young people come here to study, and many have taken on work with airport contractors to cover basic expenses. Some of these contractors are fair-minded, lawful businesses. But too many contractors rely on shadowy business practices to keep costs low. It's in this environment that sexual harassment has been allowed to thrive. The Brisbane Airport cleaning contractor accused of sexually abusing these women should be fired, and if found guilty, jailed. But it's also important that we prevent this from ever happening again. I don't want Brisbane Airport to ever again be the scene of exploitation and abuse. BAC should take steps to ensure that all airport workers are protected from potential exploitation. If enough airport employees, customers and members of the public speak out, Julieanne Alroe will listen. Please add your name and share with others. Together, we can repair the damage that's been done, and make Brisbane Airport a safer workplace for all its workers.
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    Created by Carolina R.
  • Release My Data
    Screenwriters are under-recognized and under-rewarded for their contributions because the work happens early in the production process. Minority and female writers face the largest barriers to credit and pay. Fortunately, the Screenwriters Guild has collected and archived many years of data on contracts, earnings, and credit decisions. These data hold the answers to our questions! These data have the power to reveal what policies can improve the bargaining position of writers, and equity among writers! Have challenges to credit been handled fairly? Have our policies to limit executive credit increased pay for writers? Are credit reviews really anonymous and giving equal treatment to females, males and non-binary writers? Are minorities credited equally for equal work, and paid equally too? These data must be released to an expert to find out! A Harvard professor has offered to analyze the data and produce a high-profile report on the topics we ask for, but Tery Lopez must grant them permission to access the data securely. Please join us in a movement to release our data for answers!
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    Created by Imogen Van Arts
  • Facebook: Stop exploiting your workers
    It is the job of Facebook content moderators to try and make the platform safe. This means reviewing every post that is either reported by a user or flagged by Facebook’s automated tools from its 3 billion users. For context, around 130,000 images are uploaded to Facebook every minute. The work can be harrowing, with content moderators having to look at some of the worst material on the internet. This includes murder, gruesome violence, hate speech and the sexual exploitation of children. Outsourced content moderators don’t receive proper mental health support and many develop PTSD as a result of their experience. This year, TIME magazine (https://time.com/6147458/facebook-africa-content-moderation-employee-treatment/) revealed chilling abuse at Facebook's content moderation centre in Nairobi, Kenya. Workers reported exploitation and unlawful union-busting at the Nairobi office, run by Sama — the US company who Facebook use as its main provider of outsourced content moderation in Africa. For this harrowing and dangerous work, TIME revealed workers are paid as little as $2.20 per hour. Sign this petition today in solidarity with them and all Facebook content moderators around the world.
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    Created by martha dark
  • Remove Jeff Storm
    This petition is important for several reasons; the first, it is unethical behavior that associates at Lowe’s of West Hills have suffered. There are many tenured, knowledgeable and hard working people working at this location. Employees should not be afraid or stressed going to work at Lowe’s because of this manager. Employees have the right to a workplace that is free from harassment and Constant mental distress from individuals who should lead by example and lead their team to succeed. Employees have the right to report claims against unfair and unethical treatment without retaliation and with the expectation of fair solutions.
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    Created by Roxy Ramirez