This spring, the Suns told team employees to sign an agreement that limits their ability to “sue the team over workforce matters,” according to a report from ESPN’s Baxter Holmes. The employees would risk losing their job if they did not sign the agreement, according to Holmes’ reporting.
Team employees received emails on May 27 saying that they’d receive an updated version of the team’s employee handbook, and they were asked to review and agree to the terms of the new version within three days.
Part A of the updated handbook featured many of the same topics as the previous version, from 2023, did. Part B, titled “Confidential information, Intellectual Property, and Dispute Resolution Agreement,” was a new addition.
“Under the passage focused on dispute resolution, which followed a passage on confidential information, the document stated that the Suns and employees would ‘agree all legal disputes and claims identified below shall be determined exclusively by final and binding individual arbitration,'” Baxter reported. “It further stated that the provision would last beyond that employee’s employment with the company.”
The provision, according to Holmes, covers disputes involving employment discrimination.Suns senior vice president of communications Stacey Mitch provided a statement to ESPN saying, “This policy is standard at most large organizations including Disney, ESPN, and many other NBA teams. This policy does not result in the waiver of claims.”
Holmes noted ESPN does not, in fact, require new hires to agree to mandatory arbitration clauses, and no such requirement exists in the Disney Handbook.
It’s unclear how many employees signed the agreement.
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This episode comes amid a run of legal battles for the franchise. The team has been sued six times since October 2024, with five lawsuits from either past or current employees.
In November 2024, former employee Andrea Trischan sued the team over allegations of harassment, racial discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination during her time with the team from September 2022-July 2023 — the sort of dispute that, under the new employment handbook, would go to arbitration. Trischan also filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Arizona Attorney General’s civil rights division; that complaint was dismissed.
Trischan’s attorney, Sheree Wright, said Trischan “endured overt racist comments and a hostile work environment that went unaddressed despite being reported to HR and executive leadership.” Mitch said the claims “have been without merit from Day 1.”
Last month, attorneys for companies associated with Suns minority owners Andy Kohlberg and Scott Seldin filed a lawsuit against Suns and owner Mat Ishbia, alleging he has refused to grant access to internal records.