Former CVS Pharmacist Urges Company’s Employees to Learn about the New “Opt-Out” Option in Their Training Modules
WESTBURY, NY — Anthony Tristano, an award-winning former Supervising Pharmacist who worked for CVS for more than 20 years, says that all employees undergoing LEARNet training must be made aware of how the company’s recent change in its work policy may deprive them of their rights.
CVS Health announced its new CVS Health Arbitration of Workplace Legal Disputes Policy last month in a manner that created an uproar within the ranks of Pharmacists, Pharmacy Interns, Pharmacy Techs and front-store employees.
The policy asks employees to preemptively give up their rights and to commit, as CVS notes at the bottom of page 6, “not just to go to arbitration instead of court, but to go to arbitration as a single individual party (where the focus will be on your claim) and not as part of a class or collective or representative action.” In other words, if an employee has a complaint with CVS, they must go it alone, in private arbitration, and they may not seek to recover for anyone else. This is supposed to form a mutually binding contract between CVS Health and its employees.
CVS Health just rolled this new policy out, with existing cases pending in multiple states by current and former CVS employees who are seeking to publicly protect the rights of their colleagues on a class-wide basis.
Filed under: General Problems
It is too late to opt out. The “course” stated that needed to be done within 30 days. The “uproar” must not have been widespread because no one in our district heard a peep. Every one simply jumped off the cliff.
What I mean to say is, the only power you have as an individual is the power that the threat of litigation gives you — otherwise, you have no power at all.
Arbitration started out as a good idea, and it does work… sometimes. Well, rarely. Basically, the American Arbitration Association has been corrupted by greed and profit, just like the rest of American industry.
Arbitration clauses are everywhere… For instance, whenever you get a credit card, the agreement you sign includes an arbitration clause. But it didn’t used to be that way.
If you’re interested, the documentary “Hot Coffee” does a great job of explaining why agreeing to arbitration — before you even know there’s a problem or potential claim — is always a bad idea.
Yes, you are basically signing away all your rights.
And even if you think you might not need these rights — say, in the case of a credit card — you really won’t know unless and until you experience the process yourself. And by then, it will be too late…
Well stated. Arbitration is everywhere. Click on the box if you want to work. You can’t even sign a document with the notation under duress. There is only one possible entity that could possibly counter this all encompassing corporate power. As free market precesses increase, expect fewer and fewer rights in the work place.