The Issue: Do Employee Agreements To Waive Class Actions And Arbitrate Violate The Right Of Employees To Engage In Collective Action Under The National Labor Relations Act?
Amy Howe reports on June 19, 2017, in SCOTUSBlog, that the Office of the Solicitor General, after the change of administration, has done a volte-face in a pending Supreme Court Case, National Labor Relations Board v. Murphy Oil USA. On behalf of the NLRB, the Office of the Solicitor General had previously asked SCOTUS to review and overturn a decision that had allowed the arbitration provision and class-action waiver in employer-employee agreements. The Solicitor General had argued that such provisions violate the National Labor Relations Act, because it protects the rights of employees to act collectively. The Acting Solicitor General, Jeffrey Wall, has now announced, "since the change in administration, the Office reconsidered the issue and reached the opposite conclusion." The upshot is that the NLRB will likely file its own pro-employee brief, without the support of the Solicitor General.
While under normal circumstances it is unusual for the Office of the Solicitor General to change its position just because the administration has changed, can anyone be very surprised?
See my posts of November 3, 2016 and January 17, 2017, referencing the Murphy Oil case.
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