State Rep. Dominique Jackson says she will introduce legislation in 2020 to mitigate “the harmful effect forced arbitration clauses have had on workplace sexual harassment culture.”

Forced arbitration, often required in worker contracts, denies many the right to challenge in court any workplace wrongdoing, including harassment and wage theft. Victims of wrongdoing, in these cases, can be contractually forbidden from sharing their stories with the public.

“Big employers and companies use contract terms like ‘forced arbitration’ to silence victims,” said Jackson, an Aurora Democrat, at a news conference Thursday.

She said she is working out the specifics of her 2020 bill, but that, generally speaking, she expects it will require arbitrators adhere to heightened ethics standards and a more nonpartisan approach than what’s often seen now.

“Quite often the company actually gets to pick the arbiter,” Jackson said. “The arbiter does not need to follow the code of ethics and they are often paid by the company or corporation that the individual is going into arbitration against.”

Jackson said she prefers requiring heightened ethics standards — “aimed at making sure that all professionals operating in this space are doing so without any conflicts of interest” — to a bill that would see Colorado do away with forced arbitration clauses altogether.

Ashley Wheeland, who directs the Women’s Lobby of Colorado, said, “My hope is that employees will be able to get fair representation … that they will get someone who represents their interests, not just the company’s interest.”

In an interview after the news conference, Jackson was hesitant to explain how exactly her bill will stamp out bias in forced arbitration. It appears that the teeth of the bill are still being workshopped.

Jackson and others present Thursday said they’ve been inspired on this front by Gretchen Carlson, the former Fox News personality who sued the late Roger Ailes, Fox’s former chief executive, for sexual harassment. Carlson has spoken out about the ways in which forced arbitration protects workplace harassers, and a movie about her experience, titled “Bombshell,” comes out Friday.