Lawsuits are an astoundingly inefficient way to resolve these issues. It can easily take more money than the worker will earn in his/her career to take this to

Lawsuits are an astoundingly inefficient way to resolve these issues. It can easily take more money than the worker will earn in his/her career to take this to trial, and the trial will rely more on caricatures and stereotypes than the worker's actual day-to-day experience. Imagine trying to convince the next 6 people that you meet that your side is right -- it comes down to looks, sympathy, emotions, etc, all of which have no relationship to what actually happened. The reason that employment lawyers want to get these things out of arbitration is that juries are more susceptible to emotional arguments, and the lawyers can sometimes get the company to pay their (inflated) legal fees if they win. Arbitration is quick, fast, final, and doesn't require all the legal machinations of court. Hopefully this is not a precedent.