This brought to mind an amendment to the defense appropriations bill introduced by Sen. Al Franken. That amendment addressed a problem with overseas contractors abusing the process of arbitration to avoid being sued for employee-on-employee rape.Think Progress explains the background:
In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her co-workers while she was working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad. She was detained in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food, water, or a bed, and “warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she’d be out of a job.” (Jones was not an isolated case.) Jones was prevented from bringing charges in court against KBR because her employment contract stipulated that sexual assault allegations would only be heard in private arbitration.
Franken's amendment bars the government from contracting with companies who use arbitration to keep rape victims out of court. It's pretty common sense; if ACORN can get fired from government work for giving bad tax advice, then Halliburton/KBR should probably get fired for covering up a rape and committing false imprisonment. In fact, Halliburton/KBR is getting off easy here, since all they have to do to keep working for the federal government is tweak their employee contracts. A list of senators who thought this was he worst thing ever and voted against the amendment after the jump... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]
