This article argues that mandatory arbitration clauses buried in standard-form employment contracts create a hidden, largely unaddressed form of access-to-justice deprivation in India. Contrasting a highly-paid bank VP bound by an unread arbitration clause with a lower-paid railway employee protected by statutory labour tribunals, it shows how “workmen” retain court access while managers and executives don’t—despite weaker real bargaining power. Arbitration promises speed and savings but often proves costly and slow due to challengeable awards. The author warns AI-driven job scarcity will worsen this imbalance, and calls for reforms requiring genuine consent to arbitration and closing the workman/non-workman protection gap.
Please click here to read the full article by Vishrutyi Sahni, Partner, published in Lexology.
Vishrutyi Sahni is a Partner in the Disputes practice at JSA with a strong focused on complex commercial disputes at the intersection of insolvency, restructuring, arbitration, technology and platform regulation across multi-agency enforcement.