In Epic Systems v. Lewis, the U.S. Supreme Court recently approved the use of arbitration agreements that include class action waivers. So this seems an opportune time to reassess the pros and cons for employers of using mandatory workplace arbitration agreements.
The Pros
The California Supreme Court has once again deviated from what many view as clear precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the enforcement of arbitration agreements. Last week, the California court decided McGill v. Citibank, N.A., holding that state “public policy” precludes
Last Friday, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear cases from the 9th, 7th, and 5th Circuits in which the courts are split on the issue whether class action waivers in employee arbitration agreements violate Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act by inhibiting employees’ rights to engage in “concerted activity”. The NLRB has
One of my least favorite phrases in blogging is “repurposing content.” The verb “repurposing” hurts my ears. You can give something a purpose, but you’re not “purposing” it. And if “purposing” isn’t a verb, how did “repurposing” become one?
While I hate the term, I love the concept. We’ve posted to this blog over 550
California’s legislature has passed two new statutes that increase the protections for employees arbitrating workplace disputes.
SB 1007, which passed on September 1, 2016, gives any party to arbitration proceedings “the right to have a certified shorthand reporter transcribe any deposition, proceeding, or hearing as the official record.” I routinely advise employers to have
We’ve written extensively about mandatory workplace arbitration. But it was still an honor when CEB, a program of the University of California that is cosponsored by the State Bar of California, asked me to write a guest post for their CEBlog on the pros and cons of implementing such a program. You can read that
When you draft employment arbitration agreements, it’s not enough to know what the law is. You should also know what the law will be at the time that someone challenges the agreement. Since this area of law changes continuously, that’s pretty hard to do without a crystal ball.
For a while, some courts in California
In most issues, my San Francisco colleague, Jeff Polsky, and I are kindred spirits. After all, his wife is a Nancy, and my guy is a Jeff. Plus, we both have exceptional senses of humor (oh wait, maybe that’s just him).
In any
My colleague Brian Berkley in Philadelphia wrote a piece in today’s Law360 titled “Can Opt-Out Provisions Save Arbitration Clauses?” He focuses on recent litigation involving Uber and its efforts to enforce arbitration agreements (which include class action waivers) against employees seeking to litigate wage and hour claims in court. Brian explains that Uber
A recently completed five-day arbitration with twenty-one witnesses, reminded me of the upsides of employment arbitrations (especially when I compare my situation to that of my colleagues who are preparing for jury trials in similar cases).
While we have written a lot here about the enforceability of class action waivers in such agreements, there are