Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
The Phoenix Suns are currently facing several lawsuits filed by current and former employees. As a result, according to a new report, the organization has been trying to limit their other current employees’ ability to do the same.
ESPN reports that multiple team sources said Phoenix Suns employees were notified in May that there would be an update to the team’s employee handbook. Employees were reportedly told to read and agree to the terms of the new handbook within three days.
Part of the employee handbook update was a new section: “Confidential information, Intellectual Property, and Dispute Resolution Agreement.” According to team sources who spoke to ESPN, this new section was described as contractual obligations, and Suns employees were informed that agreeing to the new documents was “a condition of your offer of employment and/or continued employment.”
In that document, it stated that the Phoenix Suns and their employees “agree all legal disputes and claims identified below shall be determined exclusively by final and binding individual arbitration.” This clause would also remain in effect after a worker’s employment with the company had come to an end.
In cases involving employment discrimination (the subject of several current lawsuits against the Suns), they will first be “submitted exclusively first to confidential mandatory mediation” before any further action can be taken, unless they constitute violations of state or federal laws.
Phoenix Suns Senior Vice President Stacey Mitch said in a statement to ESPN that the “policy is standard at most large organizations including Disney, ESPN, and many other NBA teams.” She added that it “does not result in the waiver of claims.”
Baxter Holmes, who wrote the ESPN report, disputed Mitch’s claim, writing, “ESPN doesn’t require new hires to agree to mandatory arbitration clauses, and there is no such requirement in the Disney Handbook.”
“Mandatory arbitration denies people their day in court and hides systemic problems from the public,” attorney Cortney Walters, who represents several former Suns employees who have filed lawsuits against the team, told ESPN. “This latest move is not an isolated decision. It is part of a continuing pattern of silencing employees rather than confronting discrimination. The Suns’ actions make clear that protecting their image matters more to them than protecting people.”
Earlier this year, a lawsuit filed by a former director of security claimed the Phoenix Suns franchise is guilty of racial discrimination and has serious security deficiencies. Last year, one former employee sued the Suns, alleging racial discrimination, and unlawful retaliation, while another former employee sued the team, claiming racial and gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation.
This past August, two Phoenix Suns minority owners sued the team and its majority owner, Mat Ishbia, over an alleged refusal to produce internal documents and a lack of transparency. It was the sixth lawsuit filed against the Suns since the fall of 2024.