The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) will soon rule on whether employees can waive their right to join class-action lawsuits. Unions (and the pro-union NLRB) have argued for the past few years that these waivers violate an employee’s right to “collective action” against employers. Employers, on the other hand, argue that all disputes…

An NLRB Administrative Law Judge issued a decision against a Domino’s franchisee for violating the National Labor Relations Act. The franchisee required employees, as a condition of employment, to agree to pursue legal disputes with the restaurant owners in binding arbitration on an individual basis. Thus, the employees waived their rights to pursue class and…

In a 2014 case named Muphy’s Oil, the NLRB held that arbitration agreements barring workers from pursuing class actions are unlawful. Several Circuit Courts have overturned the NLRB’s decision, while two Circuit Courts have upheld it. One of those two courts is the Ninth Circuit. So, when a case came before an Administrative Law Judge…

By now, most companies know that the National Labor Relations Board frowns upon mandatory arbitration agreements, even voluntarily entered into ones, and now even ones that permit employees to file charges with the Board. Specifically, an Administrative Law Judge found that the company acted unlawfully in making it “reasonably clear” that individual employees could file…

Since arbitration helps companies avoid the high costs associated with litigation, companies often have employees enter into agreements to arbitrate disputes rather than take them to court. Workers at Applebee’s restaurants in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware typically sign an arbitration agreement that includes a term prohibiting employees from becoming members of a class…

Seven different unions were negotiating a collective bargaining agreement with a single employer. While bargaining for the 2011 agreement, everyone agreed to exclude newly hired workers from an established pension plan, but did not discuss the “Copper Price Bonus” or workers’ eligibility for it. The bonus was kept in place in the 2011 version of…