Arbitration, Employment, Nonsignatories: 2/6 Orders Produce Packers To Arbitrate Claims With Co-Employers

Staffing Agency Signed Arbitration Agreement, Packing Employer Did Not Sign.

 

                            Packing fresh prunes at night on Produce Row during busy season, wages two cents per box. Washington, Yakima. Dorothea Lange, photographer. August 1939. Library of Congress.

    Plaintiffs/Respondents Vasquez and Zacarias were hired by a staffing agency, Employer's Depot, Inc. (EDI) which assigned them to a produce packing employer (San Miguel Produce, Inc.). Plaintiffs alleged labor violations by San Miguel Produce, with which they did not have an arbitration agreement, and San Miguel Produce cross-claimed against EDI, which did have an arbitration agreement with Plaintiffs. The superior court denied a motion by San Miguel Produce and EDI to compel arbitration (a) because Plaintiffs did not sue EDI; and (b) because Plaintiffs did not have an arbitration agreement with San Miguel Produce. Vasquez et al. v. San Miguel Produce, No. B287696 (2/6  1/3/19) (Perren, Gilbert, Tangeman) (unpublished).

    Reversed and remanded: "Appellants are co-employers with an identity of interests and mutual responsibility for complying with state law governing employers in the produce packing industry. It is inconsequential that respondents chose not to name EDI as a defendant. They agreed to arbitrate 'all disputes' arising from their employment."