Employment Arbitration: The Repeat Player Effect

Abstract

This study examines a 270-case sample of commercial and employment arbitration awards decided between 1993 and 1994, before the adoption of the Due Process Protocol for Mediation and Arbitration of Statutory Disputes Arising from Employment. It examines employee win rates and outcomes when employers are repeat players, defined as arbitrating in more than one case in the sample. Employers win statistically significantly more often when they are repeat players. Moreover, even when they win, employees recover statistically significantly less of their claims when they are arbitrating against repeat player employers. When they win against repeat player employers, employees recover only 11% of their claims. When they win in cases involving one-shot employers, they recover 48% of their claims. The study examines the implications of these findings regarding corporate and institutional repeat players for dispute resolution.

Keywords: employment, arbitration, repeat players

JEL Classification: D74, C70