As mentioned earlier, it has become almost common for some employers to include labour arbitration agreements in standard forms and working documents. As an employee, you may not be aware that you have signed your rights to sue, as the labor arbitration agreement is usually included as a clause in an employment contract or employee manual. The Supreme Court is currently considering the applicability of class action waivers in compulsory labor arbitration agreements in National Labor Relations Board v. Murphy Oil USA, Inc.6 In this case, the court will decide whether the workers` obligation to waive their right to take collective action to combat violations of labor law constitutes a violation of the protection of the right to concerted action in section 7 of the Labour Relations Act (NLRA). If the Supreme Court accepts the argument that such waivers violate the NLRA, the court`s decision would effectively end the use of class action waivers in binding labor arbitration agreements. However, if the Court sides with the employers` arguments in these cases, it will signal to companies that the last potential obstacle to their ability to opt out of class actions has been removed. This would likely encourage companies to introduce mandatory labor arbitration and class action waivers even more broadly. 7. The GAO survey first revealed that 9.9% of institutions have mandatory arbitration; However, in the follow-up, some of them said that they had made mistakes in the reports, for example.B. the confusion between union labour arbitration procedures and non-compulsory labour arbitration procedures. Adjusted for these erroneous responses, only 7.6% of companies actually had compulsory labour arbitration. 15.
Here, I will only consider whether there was an explicit class action waiver in the arbitration agreement. An arbitrator or court may also interpret an agreement without express waiver in such a way that arbitration claims can only be invoked individually. However, the inclusion of explicit class action waivers is important because they allow the employer to eliminate any doubt as to whether a class action can be brought. . . .