California Employment News: The State of Mandatory Arbitration Agreements in California Employment
Podcast: California Employment News - The State of Mandatory Arbitration Agreements in California Employment
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Arbitration Clauses in Employee Contracts and Beyond
It is generally understood, or at least it has been in the past, that plaintiffs prefer to avoid the application of the Federal Arbitration Act (the “FAA”) and instead present their cases to juries. As such, plaintiffs have...more
Arbitration agreements are useful tools for California employers, but they are replete with potential dangers. An employer contemplating using arbitration in the workplace must evaluate whether it should be mandatory, the...more
The use of arbitration agreements between employers and employees is a long-standing practice that has become an integral part of employment dispute resolution across the country. Employers often use arbitration agreements...more
There are times when one would rather not be proven right. Nearly four years ago, a California district court invalidated AB 51, which sought to prohibit mandatory arbitration by, among other things, calling for criminal...more
In Munoz, v. Earthgrains Distribution, LLC, 2023 WL 5986129 (S.D. Cal. Sept. 13, 2023), the plaintiffs, members of a class of independent distributors of baked goods for Earthgrains and other bakeries, alleged that they were...more
Some good news for California employers. Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that California employers can require employees and applicants to sign arbitration agreements as a condition of...more
On February 15, 2023, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided Chamber of Commerce v. Bonta and found that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) preempts California’s Assembly Bill 51 (AB 51). Background: The FAA embodies a...more
On Feb. 15, 2023, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s ruling that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) preempts California Assembly Bill 51 (AB 51), which made it a criminal offense for an...more
California’s attempt to limit mandatory arbitration agreements as a condition of employment has been held to violate Federal law, according to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals....more
The Ninth Circuit gave California employers a belated Valentine’s Day present by upholding the District Court’s injunction against enforcement of California Assembly Bill 51 (“AB 51”) because it inhibited arbitration contrary...more
In a reversal of its prior ruling, the Ninth Circuit recently held that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) preempts California Assembly Bill 51 (AB 51), a 2019 measure that aimed to bar employers from entering into new...more
On February 15, 2023, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a 2020 California law that attempted to prohibit employers from requiring employees and job applicants to agree to arbitration as a condition of employment. The...more
A federal appeals court just paved the way for California employers to continue utilizing mandatory arbitration agreements with employees and job applicants. You may be familiar with the litigation roller coaster of...more
On October 26, 2022, the New Jersey Appellate Division in Rourke v. Herr Foods, Inc. once again confirmed that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) preempts the 2019 amendment to the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD)...more
Employers throughout California have been keenly awaiting the final decision from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the United States Chamber of Commerce’s challenge to California Labor Code section 432.6,...more
The panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that largely upheld California’s law banning mandatory arbitration agreements in the employment context just withdrew its decision. On August 22, 2022, two of the three...more
The Supreme Court has recently taken the challenge of assessing the scope and breadth of workplace arbitration provisions under the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) in Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana, and Southwest...more
Since the California Supreme Court’s ruling in Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, LLC in 2014, it has been widely understood that Private Attorneys’ General Act (“PAGA”) actions cannot be subject to employment...more
Trump-Era Independent Contractor Rule Reinstated. In a decision issued on March 15, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas reinstated the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) rule, “Independent Contractor...more
Businesses and attorneys alike have kept a close eye on the developments surrounding the challenge to California Assembly Bill 51 (now codified as Labor Code section 432.6). Most recently, in a 2-1 decision, the 9th Circuit...more
In the spirit of the season, we are using our annual "12 days of the holidays" blog series to address new California laws and their impact on California employers. On this second day of the holidays, my labor and employment...more
The battle concerning California’s Assembly Bill (AB) No. 51 - the law seeking effectively to ban mandatory employment arbitration in California - continues to rage. On October 20, 2021, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the...more
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes for the past few years—and this past month...more
In a split 2-1 decision that likely raises more questions than it answers, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals cast some doubt upon the ability of employers to implement mandatory arbitration agreements with their employees....more
For the last four years, California employers have mostly been focused on changes in state and local law, as the Trump administration has done little to regulate employers. Later this month, when the administration changes in...more