Fired Worker Who Refused to Waive Rights Sues Firms

A legal secretary is suing two law firms after being fired for refusing to waive his right to settle legal disputes with his employers in court.

Donald Lagatree’s case spotlights a national trend that is seeing more and more employers pressuring workers to surrender legal rights, civil liberties lawyers say.

The system being challenged involves putting pressure on employees to sign waivers in which they agree to binding arbitration if a legal dispute with their employer develops.

Lagatree, 43, refused to sign the agreements and was fired because of it, said David Schwartz, senior staff counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

“Usually employees yield to the pressure under the belief that they can’t afford to lose their job,” Schwartz said. “Then if they subsequently believe they’ve been subjected to discrimination or sexual harassment, they find they can’t take their employer to court. They have to arbitrate.”

Attorney Bob Logan, a partner in a Long Beach firm that is being sued by Lagatree, said his firm will fight the suit all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. “He will have to make new law to win the case,” Logan said.