Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled two years ago in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion that companies can enforce class action waivers in consumer contracts, defendants have been trying to use Concepcion as a class action killer in the employment context as well. Those efforts haven’t been particularly successful so far, but there are signs that the tide may be turning.
On February 22, U.S. District Judge Vincent Briccetti in Manhattan dismissed a purported overtime class action against JPMorgan Chase, citing a mandatory arbitration and class-action waiver clause in a former employee’s contract. Briccetti ruled that binding arbitration agreements are permitted under Concepcion, and that the Federal Arbitration Act was enacted to encourage arbitration as an alternative to costly and time-consuming litigation. What’s more, the judge rejected the notion that he should defer to the National Labor Relations Board’s January 2012 decision in In re D.R. Horton, in which the NLRB held that binding arbitration agreements in employment contracts violate the National Labor Relations Act.
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