On May 10, 2024, the Ninth Circuit decided Yuriria Diaz v. Macy’s West Stores, after the employer appealed the district court’s decision ordering arbitration of both an employee’s individual and non-individual claims under...more
Employers – and, in particular, car dealerships – have relied on binding arbitration agreements to resolve employment disputes for decades. Arbitration offers a confidential setting in which businesses can efficiently...more
In December 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in Viking River Cruises v. Moriana (Viking). The question presented in Viking is whether the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) requires enforcement of a bilateral...more
Since the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Epic Systems v. Lewis, which deemed class action waivers in employment agreements permissible, employers have increasingly relied upon mandatory arbitration provisions to limit...more
Do your employees sign arbitration agreements? If so, do your arbitration agreements prevent employees from joining class actions against your company? Does your company want to start requiring arbitration agreements? If...more
On June 12, 2018, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee issued an executive order that directs Washington agencies to favor government contractors that do not require employees to submit to individual arbitration of claims. ...more
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes for the past few years—and this past month...more
In a natural extension of the Supreme Court’s recent conclusion that the NLRA does not preclude the use of class or collective action waivers in employment-related arbitration agreements, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals...more
On the heels of the Supreme Court's decision in Epic Systems Corporation v. Lewis, which held that the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) does not bar class or collective action waivers in arbitration agreements, the 6th...more
Employers have faced questions about the enforceability of arbitration agreements with class and collective action waivers since the NLRB’s highly controversial D.R. Horton decision in 2012, which held that the waivers...more
In the years following the U.S. Supreme Court’s AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion decision, more and more courts enforced class waivers in arbitration agreements based on the commands of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). The...more
The long-running battle over collective action waivers in the arbitration clauses of employment agreements continues to rage in the Courts of Appeals. Two recent decisions (and the cert petitions filed in their wake) may...more
Mandatory employment arbitration agreements suffered a significant blow last week, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (covering California, Washington, and other western states) found illegal and...more
The Ninth Circuit is the latest court to consider the NLRB’s position that class and collective action waivers violate the NLRA; here, the court ruled that an arbitration agreement that completely prevents employees from...more
Many employers will be surprised to learn that, under some circumstances, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) may regulate their ability to enter into certain contractual agreements with employees. The decision of the...more
Last week, Kris Dunn of Fist Full of Talent offered some sage advice about sexual harassment training. He recommended using real world examples and creating debate about what is and isn’t sexual harassment. This advice was...more
The Seventh Circuit recently became the first federal appellate court to say that employers can’t prevent class/collective actions through waivers in mandatory arbitration agreements, holding that such waivers interfere with...more
This week, the Supreme Court disappointed many employers by declining to determine whether the Fair Labor Standards Act does or does not provide employees with a non-waivable substantive right to bring a collective action. ...more
Sixty-four employment law issues have become just two after an exciting Final Four. Last night, while Wisconsin and Duke played each other in the NCAA championship, the Wage and Hour Collective Actions and the Retaliation...more
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently noted in Killion et al. v. KeHE Distrib., LLC, Nos. 13-3357/4340 (6th Cir. Jul. 30, 2014) that it was the first appellate court to tackle head on the question of whether a...more
Employers have recently enjoyed some victories in the U.S. Supreme Court and in the California Supreme Court regarding the use of class/collective action waivers in employment arbitration agreements (e.g. Italian Colors and...more
Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld a class action waiver in an arbitration clause, compelling employees who had attempted to bring a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act to...more
Finding the National Labor Relations Board failed to give appropriate weight to the Federal Arbitration Act, the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a Board decision invalidating an arbitration agreement that...more
In February, two New York Federal District Court decisions joined other recent federal cases in enforcing arbitration agreements that preclude employees from bringing their Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) claims on a...more