Employers and employees alike benefit from consistent and established standards regulating fair employment practices. There are existing federal and state laws, which seek to protect individuals from discrimination in employment, while also providing appropriate due process to employers without limiting the employer's ability to maintain a secure, safe and productive workplace, including, but not limited to, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Equal Pay Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.
Mississippi is a right-to-work state and is governed by the right-to-work laws. Such laws are premised on the belief of free choice whereby employees have a right to freely decide whether to join, be represented by, or financially support a union or employee organization. A labor neutrality agreement is used as a tool to pressure company ownership and management to agree to union demands before the union approaches or involves affected employees, which is unfair to the employer as well as the employee or potential employee. This state recognizes that these agreements have become increasingly common in recent years. As a result of this increase, the need to regulate the use of such agreements is necessary to ensure that both the employer and employee are treated in the fairest way possible.