The Second Circuit issued a summary order affirming a decision by the Southern District of New York compelling arbitration pursuant to class-action and collective-action waivers contained in an employment arbitration agreement. The agreement required employees to submit all employment and compensation-related claims to arbitration and mandated that such claims be decided on an individual basis. The sole issue on appeal was whether the arbitration provision’s “prohibition of class or collective adjudication of work-related claims illegally restrict[ed] employees’ substantive rights under the NLRA and the [Norris-La Guardia Act], and [was] unenforceable under the [Federal Arbitration Act].” The court described the landscape of the Circuit split on this issue, noting that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Seventh and Ninth Circuits have rejected the class/collective action waivers, whereas the Fifth and Eighth Circuits have held that such waivers may be enforceable. The Second Circuit panel then followed its own precedent, citing its 2013 decision in Sutherland v. Ernst & Young LLP, which is aligned with position of the Fifth and Eighth Circuits. The court then affirmed the enforceability of the waivers here. Patterson v. Raymours Furniture Co., Inc., Case No. 15-2820-cv (2d Cir. Sept. 2, 2016).
This post written by Gail Jankowski, a law clerk at Carlton Fields in Washington, DC.
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