Arbitration, Class Action, Waiver, FAA: Coming Soon To The Supreme Court: Can Employees Sign Away Their Rights In Arbitration Provisions To Sue Their Employer In A Class Action?

Subscript Law Has A Snappy Explainer.

        Today's SCOTUSBlog mentions that Subscript Law has a nice explainer boiling down three consolidated arbitration cases that the United States Supreme Court will be hearing at the beginning of its new term.  The key issue in these cases: can employees sign away their rights to file class actions against their employer by signing an employment contract requiring waiver of class actions and arbitration of disputes?

        The cases involve two federal acts in seeming collision.  On the one hand, the Federal Arbitration Act requires enforcement of agreements to arbitrate.  On the other hand, the National Labor Relations Act provides employees with a right to organize.  The FAA will not be enforced if federal law has clearly carved out an exception to enforcing an arbitration agreement.  So does the right to organize, protected by the FLRA, include the right to file a class action, something that an arbitration/waiver provision enforceable under the FAA seeks to take away?

 

Above:  Hear Woody Guthrie sing Union song, "Which Side Are You On," composed by Florence Reece during the Harlan County miners' strike.