ISHMAEL WILLIAMS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. PARKELL PRODUCTS, INC., Defendant-Appellee., 91 Fed. Appx. 707

Summary

The employee alleged that his employer denied him equal pay and promotions on the basis of his race and terminated his employment in retaliation for complaining about discriminatory harassment by his supervisor in management, all in contravention of Title VII, 42 U.S.C.S. § 2000e et seq. The district court granted the employer's motion to dismiss, finding that an arbitration agreement signed by the employee required arbitration, rather than litigation, of his Title VII claims. The employee argued that his supervisor's threat to terminate his employment if he did not sign the arbitration agreement constituted duress sufficient to defeat the employer's motion to dismiss his complaint. The court noted, however, that conditioning employment on the acceptance of an agreement to arbitrate disputes, including those arising under civil rights laws, was not itself unlawfully coercive. Because the employee did not adduce any evidence of duress apart from a threat of termination if he did not ...