Application Of Arbitration Agreements By California Employers

Facts: Defendant (Kmart) allegedly failed to provide to plaintiff (Lopez) the written wage statements. The availability of the wage statements is required under California labor code. Under the agreement, employment-related issues between the employee and company shall be resolved informally or by binding arbitration. This replaces the right of either party to go to court or have a jury decide the outcome of the claims. Lopez alleges that the agreement was never valid due to the fact that he was a minor when he acknowledged the agreement and is now entitled to revoke his consent.

Although the arbitrator’s final awards are legally binding, an unhappy party of arbitration may still go to court under certain circumstances.  As mentioned by Fallon & McConnell, “unless one party protests that there was a gross injustice, collusion, or fraud, arbitration that is specified by a contract can be converted into a legal judgment.  This requires a petition to the appropriate court” (n.d., p. 388).  As expected, this can become costly for the person who is seeking to appeal.

However, the ruling in this case and others like it prove that employers can, in fact, be bound by articles written in an employee handbook when disciplining or discharging an employee. An abysmally written handbook can greatly jeopardize an employer’s right to terminate at will. Trends show that courts are increasingly acknowledging enforceable promises in the past employment practices of firms, in employer handbooks and in oral commitments. In addition to including an at-will disclaimer in employee handbooks, employers should also require employees to sign an acknowledgment confirming that they understand and agree to employment-at-will and that at-will employment can at any time be modified by a written agreement. Personnel manuals should explicitly state that the employer reserves the right to terminate employment at will. All written policies should also be free of any language that could be considered as a guarantee of job security. To be sure that these common pitfalls are avoided employers must retain the service of a labor attorney to draft and air-tight employee manual and acknowledgment

Thesis: The Lakeside Packers case demonstrates that the province of Alberta requires the Labour Code to be amended to allow for First Contract Arbitration in the Collective Bargaining Process.

The seventh amendment’s efficacy is brought to question by rulings related to mandatory arbitration. An early case of this was in Gilmer v Interstate/Johnson Lane Corp. it was decided by the lower courts that Gilmer who wanted

Facts: In Davis Supermarkets, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board 2 F.3d 1162 (DC. Cir. 1993), the Court was asked to decide a dispute between an employer (Davis) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NLRB had found that Davis committed unfair labor practices, which Davis disputed. A union (Local 23) was attempting to organize a local at Davis. Several employees signed authorization cards for the union. Six of those employees were terminated in a mass layoff that impacted eight employees. Davis then fired or constructively fired three more employees who had filed authorization cards. Davis's chairman of the board then informed employees that he wanted them to sign authorizations with the Steelworkers, a competing union. However, Davis maintained that the employees were terminated for cause, not because they signed authorization cards for Local 23.

In the case of Nino v. The Jewelry Exchange, there were allegations brought forth by Rajae Nino who felt he was discriminated against by his former employer, on the account of his gender and national origin. When he was employed with said employer, he was given a copy of the company’s employment contract by the human resources manager and instructed him to read it and sign it without affording him any opportunity to negotiate over its terms. With most discrimination cases, “the EEOC encourages the parties to discrimination charges to use mediation” (Walsh, p. 20), with this case the employer invoked an arbitration provision in Nino’s employment contract wherein the Court of Appeals decided the arbitration agreement was unconscionable and therefore unenforceable. On the flip side, if the unconscionable terms were removed from the contract, the remainder of the employment contract could be enforced.

California’s “anti-SLAPP” statute (codified in Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16) protects the Constitutional rights to freedom of speech and right of petition by subjecting any cause of action that chills these rights to be subject to a special motion to strike. In the context of a complaint against an attorney for malpractice, the California Court of Appeal recently clarified its application under existing precedent and held the anti-SLAPP statute did not apply to claims against attorneys by former clients.

Remedies available to employers would be an employer can urge strikes that violate a no-strike clause when the strike is over an arbitral issue. But even when an injunction will not be issued, an employer can still recover damages for the breach. This would be a suit under Section 301 (Cihon & Castagnera, 2015).

This paper will outline a complaint process and illustrate the civil litigation that could follow if the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, through mediation and arbitration cannot resolve a charge. The complaint is based on a scenario of an employee, named John. John works for a private sector business and he wishes to lodge a complaint of discrimination against the company he works for. This paper will explain the steps that are taken, from the beginning with the (EEOC), Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The paper will continue explaining the process by illustrating the civil litigation steps from the state level to the highest level of the United States Supreme Courts.

On August 22, 2016, the Ninth Circuit held that the clause was unenforceable due to employee rights. The Court’s

When comparing both claims from both parties, union and the company, it will be the union. I believe that Union had a stronger case and from the union perspective, there were several arguments made that were persuasive and they are; the threatening of employees with deprivation of benefits if the union should be elected to represent them, repeatedly interrogated employees concerning their union activities, and promising to pay and paying employees for certain medical benefits to discourage them from supporting the union.” The interrogation of employees concerning union activities in particular is an affirmation in the case where the company’s past employee maintenance, Larry Melton, called George Thompson, an employee who works at the company

It is not my recommendation that ABC wait for the EEOC to perform investigation and file suit against the company. In recent history these proceedings become public affairs and will reflect poorly on ABC and its management regardless of the court’s ruling. ABC’s management should begin mediation with David to prevent suit being filed with the goal of settlement outside of court with ABC’s remedial options including:

Moreover, I see that arbitration allows for influence over the outcome of the dispute essentially since employers generally

In the United States, the laws responsible for governing arbitration are contained in the Federal Arbitration Act. It mainly subjects most arbitration to the judicial review of single standards regardless of whether the dispute has been categorized as either international or domestic. The first chapter contains the very basic of the provisions of the act with regards to making of the arbitration agreements and the enforcing of awards. The second chapter of the federal arbitration act is for implementing the New York convention while the third chapter holds the Panama Convention. Both the second and the third chapters are described as the International Federal Arbitration Acts. The international arbitration agreement is however subjected to the United States ‘domestic