Article 8: Right to an effective remedy by competent national tribunals
Necessary
Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
Why shareholder democracy is necessary
Millions of workers and consumers never see a courtroom because the employment or purchase contract they signed already routed any dispute to private arbitration and forbade joining a class action. A 2018 study found this covered 60 million U.S. workers. Wells Fargo, Uber, and Google all faced this pressure directly: Wells Fargo dropped mandatory arbitration for sexual harassment claims in 2020 after an investor, Clean Yield Asset Management, filed a shareholder proposal. Congress banned forced arbitration for sexual assault and harassment claims in 2022 with rare bipartisan support, but the broader FAIR Act, covering all employment and consumer disputes, has stalled for years against U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposition. A parallel fight over whether companies can force their own shareholders into arbitration for securities fraud claims reached a Delaware court in 2021 and the SEC in 2025.
How this was scoredNecessary
Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
Forced arbitration clauses and class-action waivers embedded in employment and consumer contracts by tens of thousands of companies bar a documented 60.1 million American workers alone from court. Most of what determines whether a remedy is effective sits outside any company's control: court funding, legal aid, criminal defense and standing rules.
Sustained lobbying by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and allied trade groups has kept the broader Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (FAIR) Act, which passed the House twice, from ever getting a Senate vote. A 2025 SEC policy statement then cleared the way for companies to force arbitration on their own shareholders' securities claims. That makes corporate political activity a primary obstacle to closing this gap through legislation.
1 and 2, higher of the two, gives Necessary
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- The growing use of mandatory arbitration: Access to the courts is now barred for more than 60 million American workers, Economic Policy Institute, 2018-04-06
- Wells Fargo ends mandatory arbitration for workplace sexual harassment, Banking Dive, 2020-02-12
- President Joe Biden signs into law bill ending forced arbitration in sexual assault, harassment cases, The Washington Post, 2022-03-03
- U.S. Chamber Letter on the "Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (FAIR) Act", U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 2021-03-08
- SEC Issues Policy Statement Regarding Issuer-Investor Mandatory Arbitration Provision, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, 2025-09
- Federal Judge Dismisses Latest Lawsuit Seeking to Legitimize Forced Arbitration, Cohen Milstein, 2021-06-30
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Filed a shareholder proposal asking Wells Fargo to review and report on mandatory arbitration's effect on sexual harassment claims, then withdrew it once the bank agreed to end the practice.
Wells Fargo ends mandatory arbitration for workplace sexual harassment, Banking Dive
Led opposition to the FAIR Act, including paying individuals to place op-eds supporting mandatory arbitration.
U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Paying People $2,000 To Pretend Binding Arbitration Is Good, Above the Law
3 campaigns on record
Publish a report explaining how Uber is addressing incidents of riders being sexually harassed or assaulted.
Result: filed January 22, 2026; vote not yet held as of this report
we found no documented change yet; the proposal was pending at the time of this report.
Report on how mandatory arbitration affects employees who bring sexual harassment claims, and reconsider requiring arbitration for those claims.
Result: withdrawn after company agreed
Wells Fargo ended mandatory arbitration for future workplace sexual harassment claims, announced February 12, 2020.
Wells Fargo ends mandatory arbitration for workplace sexual harassment, Banking Dive
Adopt a bylaw requiring shareholders to arbitrate securities-fraud claims against the company rather than sue in court, with a five-year sunset.
Result: proposal excluded by SEC no-action relief; proponent's federal lawsuit dismissed June 30, 2021
we found no documented change: Johnson & Johnson never adopted the mandatory-arbitration bylaw, and the court ruling preserved shareholders' existing right to sue in court.
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is Universal Declaration of Human Rights's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.