As anticipated, President Joe Biden signed into law the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (“the Act”) today. Effective immediately, the Act amends the Federal Arbitration Act and limits the enforceability of U.S. employers’ mandatory arbitration agreements that require all employment-related claims be arbitrated, rather than litigated. We discussed here the Act’s carve-out for […]
The majority of U.S. employers have elected to adopt the use of mandatory arbitration agreements, requiring that all employment-related claims be arbitrated and not litigated. Pursuant to a series of landmark United States Supreme Court decisions, such mandatory arbitration agreements are permissible and enforceable under the Federal Arbitration Act. Most such agreements contain class action […]
At a time when some courts seem willing to write arbitration clauses out of contracts because of perceived fairness issues, Utah is firmly and liberally behind them. The Utah Court of Appeals recently confirmed Utah’s very strong policy in favor of arbitration and its liberal construction of arbitration clauses. Although not decided in the context […]
There has been much publicity recently regarding a series of states enacting state statutes intended to restrict or prohibit mandatory arbitration agreements in the employment context. The most recent such endeavor to be highly publicized is California’s A.B. 51, which arguably prohibits employers from making arbitration agreements a condition of offered or continued employment. As […]
In recent years, many private sector employers have adopted mandatory arbitration programs for employment disputes, which their employees are required to sign as a condition of employment. Main objectives of those programs are the expeditious resolution of employment disputes and the avoidance of protracted and expensive court litigation. Typically, mandatory employment arbitration programs list the […]
Last year, in Epic Systems Corp v. Lewis, the Supreme Court held that employers act lawfully when they require employees, as a condition of employment, to enter into agreements with the employer waiving their rights to pursue employment claims through class or collective actions and stipulating that any such disputes would be resolved by individualized […]
In a unanimous opinion, with Justice Ginsburg concurring, the U.S. Supreme Court held that an exemption under the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) applies to contracts with independent contractors. The FAA generally requires courts to enforce private arbitration agreements. But the FAA has exemptions, including “contracts of employment of . . . workers engaged in foreign […]
A surprising and cautionary tale for employers from the usually conservative and employer-friendly Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals – you might want to sign your arbitration agreements. The court last week struck down an employer’s arbitration agreement which was signed by the employee but not by the company. See here. The arbitration agreement at issue […]
The California legislature is looking to pass a host of bills aimed at decreasing sexual harassment in the workplace and increasing rights of victims of sexual harassment: SB 820 bans confidential settlement agreements in cases involving sexual assault, sexual harassment or sex discrimination. This bill would make any such confidential settlement agreement void as a […]
On April 20, 2018, the California Court of Appeal, in the case Nguyen v. Inter-Coast International Training, Inc., held that an arbitration agreement contained in an employee handbook was both procedurally and substantively unconscionable. In that case, after a wage and hour class action was filed and certified against the employer, the employer modified its […]
