WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether companies can use employment contracts to prohibit workers from banding together to take legal action over workplace issues.

The court accepted three cases on the subject. They follow a series of Supreme Court decisions endorsing similar provisions, generally in contracts with consumers. The question for the justices in the new cases is whether the same principles apply to employment contracts.

In both settings, the challenged contracts typically require two things: that disputes be raised through the informal mechanism of arbitration rather than in court and that claims be brought one by one. That makes it hard to pursue minor claims that affect many people, whether in class actions or in mass arbitrations.

In 2011, in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, the Supreme Court ruled that the Federal Arbitration Act, which favors arbitration, allowed companies to avoid class actions by insisting on individual arbitrations in their contracts with consumers.