Some employers will bury dangerous language in the small print of documents an employee is required to sign at the start of a job. An example is FedEx’s “employment agreement” requiring that any lawsuit an employee brings for a violation of the law by FedEx must be brought within six months.
A suit based on race discrimination under our country’s oldest civil rights act, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, allows a suit to be brought within four years of the violation. Some courts have upheld the shortening of the time by an agreement signed by the employee. This is a dangerous injustice for employees who don’t remember having signed or who never read the small print and rely on bringing a claim within the normal time allowed.
Recently, a federal court found that the shortening of time for this important statute to be against public policy. JENNIFER HARRIS, Plaintiff, v. FEDEX CORPORATION, Defendant., No. 4:21-CV-01651, 2022 WL 4003876, at *2 (S.D. Tex. Aug. 31, 2022) (citing Burnett v. Grattan, 468 U.S. 42, 48 (1984)).