By Jennifer A. Riley, Andrew Scroggins, and Tyler Zmick

Seyfarth Synopsis: As we previously reported, employers generally have found success when the U.S. Supreme Court takes up questions about the arbitrability of workplace disputes. The unanimous decision in Southwest Airlines Co. v. Saxon bucks that trend, denying employers a clear victory and holding that those who load cargo onto airplanes engaged in interstate travel are exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). The Court’s fact-specific decision, however, rejects any bright-line test based on the employer’s industry and allows for a worker-based inquiry.  As such, it leaves room for employers looking to enforce their arbitration agreements under federal law and opens the door to future litigation regarding whether workers are actually “engaged in interstate commerce” when they do not cross borders to perform their work.

Background

Latrice Saxon worked at Midway International Airport in Chicago as a ramp supervisor for Southwest Airlines. She filed suit against the company in federal court, alleging that Southwest Airlines failed to pay overtime wages to Saxon and others. Saxon, however, previously had agreed to submit any disputes over wages to an arbitrator who would decide them in arbitration on an individual basis. Accordingly, the company moved to dismiss the lawsuit and to compel arbitration under the FAA.

Saxon resisted the motion to compel, arguing that her work placed her outside the scope of the FAA. More specifically, she cited Section 1 of the FAA, which provides that the statute does not apply to “contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.”

The district court sided with Southwest Airlines, reasoning that ramp agents and supervisors are responsible for the handling of goods but not responsible for the transportation of those goods across state lines. The Seventh Circuit reversed that decision, holding that “[t]he act of loading cargo onto a vehicle to be transported interstate is itself commerce” as the term was understood when the FAA was enacted. The Seventh Circuit’s decision put it in conflict with an earlier decision by the Fifth Circuit, and the Supreme Court took the case to resolve the split.

What Did The Supreme Court Hold?

In a unanimous 8-0 decision (Justice Barrett recused), the Supreme Court agreed with the Seventh Circuit’s holding that ramp agents and supervisors who physically loaded cargo onto airplanes traveling across state lines are subject to the FAA’s transportation worker exemption.  Southwest Airlines Co. v. Saxon, 596 U.S. ___ (2022).

The Court reached its conclusion through a two-step analysis.  (Slip. Op. at 3.)  First, the Court defined “the relevant ‘class of workers’ to which Saxon belongs.”  Id.  Next, the Court “determine[d] whether that class of workers is ‘engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.’”  Id.

Defining the Relevant Class of Workers As “Airplane Cargo Loaders”

Saxon urged the Court to take an expansive view of this issue and to decide it based on her employer’s industry – air transportation. The Court expressly rejected this sweeping approach, noting that the FAA refers to “workers,” not “employees” or “servants,” which suggests that the scope of the exemption turns on the performance of work.

The Court held that this inquiry is not directed at the nature of the employer’s business but directed at the actual work that the members of the class typically carry out.  (Id. at 4.)  In other words, “Saxon is … a member of a ‘class of workers’ based on what she does at Southwest, not what Southwest does generally.”

The Court concluded from the record before it that Saxon and other ramp supervisors physically loaded and unloaded cargo on and off airplanes on a frequent basis.

Defining Whether “Airplane Cargo Loaders” Are Engaged in Interstate Commerce

The Court next considered whether the class of airplane cargo loaders to which Saxon belonged was “engaged in foreign or interstate commerce” and found its answer in a decision issued nearly a century ago:

We have said that it is “too plain to require discussion that the loading or unloading of an interstate shipment by the employees of a carrier is so closely related to interstate transportation as to be practically a part of it.” Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern R. Co. v. Burtch, 263 U. S. 540, 544 (1924). We think it equally plain that airline employees who physically load and unload cargo on and off planes traveling in interstate commerce are, as a practical matter, part of the interstate transportation of goods. They form “a class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.”

(Id. at 5.)  Applying that decision here, the Court concluded that “one who loads cargo on a plane bound for interstate transit is intimately involved with the commerce (e.g., transportation) of that cargo.”  (Id. at 6.)

Having concluded that “Saxon frequently loads and unloads cargo on and off airplanes that travel in interstate commerce,” the Court held that she satisfied the transportation worker exemption in Section 1 of the FAA.

The ruling does not disturb mandatory arbitration of certain types of disputes arising under collective bargaining agreements pursuant to the Railway Labor Act.

What About Other Classes of Workers?

While the Court agreed that “airplane cargo loaders” are engaged in interstate commerce, it acknowledged that the distinction may not always be clear:

We recognize that the answer [whether the class of workers are engaged in foreign or interstate commerce] will not always be so plain when the class of workers carries out duties further removed from the channels of interstate commerce or the actual crossing of borders.

(Id. at 5 n.2.)  While the Court did not offer a bright-line test to help draw such distinctions in the future, it provided a few guideposts.

First, the Court noted that, although the FAA does not define “transportation worker,” any such worker must at least be “actively engaged” in the “free flow of goods across borders” via the “channels of foreign or interstate commerce.”  (Id. at 6.)

Applying these criteria, the Court noted that cargo loaders exhibit these central features of a transportation worker because they “load[] cargo on a plane bound for interstate transit” and, when they engage in such activity, “there [can] be no doubt that [interstate] transportation [is] still in progress.”  (Id.)

Second, the Court offered some examples of work that would not satisfy the exemption. Citing Gulf Oil Corp. v. Copp Paving Co., 419 U.S. 186 (1974), it noted that workers who make intrastate sales of asphalt are not engaged in interstate commerce merely because the product is later used to build interstate highways. Similarly, citing United States v. American Building Maintenance Industries, 422 U.S. 271 (1975), the Court explained that workers who supply localized janitorial services to a corporation engaged in interstate commerce do not satisfy the exemption because they do not perform activities “within the flow” of interstate commerce.

In a footnote, the Court acknowledged that two Circuits recently issued divergent decisions involving workers who carried out duties “further removed from the channels of interstate commerce or the actual crossing of borders.”  (Slip Op. at 5 n.2.)  It referred to the Ninth Circuit’s decision finding “last leg” delivery drivers within Section 1’s exemption and the Seventh Circuit’s decision finding food delivery drivers outside Section 1’s exemption. Although its opinion appeared to signal its take on these holdings, the Court stated only that it “need not address those questions to resolve this case.”  Id.

Implications For Employers

Employers avoided the worst case scenario that some had feared — a holding that the transportation worker exemption applies to all employees who work for employers engaged in the transportation industry. Instead, the Court issued a fact-specific decision that focused on application of the transportation worker exemption to a worker directly engaged in loading cargo for transport across borders.

Companies should anticipate that other workers who are less directly involved in the flow of interstate commerce will attempt to invoke the exemption claiming that they, too, are exempt from the FAA. The burden of demonstrating that the “transportation worker” exemption applies falls to the worker, and the decision in Saxon provides employers ammunition for curtailing these arguments based the work “actually performed” as well as the connection of that work to the flow of goods across borders.

Somewhat ironically, the Supreme Court’s decision heightens the importance of state law in enforcing arbitration agreements of workers most connected to interstate transportation.  For those workers, the choice of state law will take on renewed emphasis as many states already have adopted uniform arbitration acts that do not contain transportation worker exemptions and others have a clear runway to legislate the enforceability of these agreements.

Seyfarth Synopsis: In yesterday’s blog post, Jerry Maatman outlined the ways in which workplace arbitration programs continued to have a profound impact on workplace class action litigation in 2021. Today, listen to the video blog below to learn how these programs influenced the nature of class action litigation filed and shifted the types of claims and what to expect in 2022.

By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr.

Seyfarth Synopsis: Workplace arbitration programs continued to have a profound impact on workplace class action litigation in 2021. Such programs influenced the nature of class action litigation filed and shifted the types of claims asserted as the plaintiffs’ bar continued to find ways to pivot around such obstacles.

As employers clawed for cover from the increasing weight of workplace class action litigation in recent years, workplace arbitration has continued to gain traction, aided by the U.S. Supreme Court’s transformative ruling in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, 138 S. Ct. 1612 (2018). Epic Systems reaffirmed that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) requires courts to enforce agreements to arbitrate according to their terms, including mandatory agreements that provide for individual proceedings and include class action waivers.

Bolstered by such precedents, more than half of non-union, private-sector employers and more than two-thirds of large employers have adopted mandatory arbitration agreements. Such programs have continued to shift class action litigation dynamics in critical ways as they have led to more front-end attacks on proposed class and collective actions and, as the result of such attacks, to the defense bar dismantling more workplace class and collective actions by fracturing those proceedings and diverting them into individual arbitrations.

Workplace arbitration agreements with class action waivers were one of the most potent tools of employers to manage their risk of class action litigation in 2021. In the time period since the Supreme Court decided Epic Systems, businesses facing class action lawsuits have filed more motions to compel arbitration with a higher rate of success than in the years before this landmark decision.

The latest class action litigation statistics show that, over the past five years, motions to compel arbitration have become an increasingly effective defense to class action lawsuits, particularly since Epic Systems.

The following graphic illustrates the number of motions to compel arbitration that were filed from 2016 to 2021:

Over the past year, plaintiffs’ class action lawyers continued to attempt to find ways to end-run such agreements. These efforts took shape on multiple fronts. In 2021, the plaintiffs’ bar continued to shift its efforts toward claims more apt to be immune from such programs or toward populations less likely to have entered into agreements with the defendants. This trend is illustrated by the spike in filings asserting violations of the California Private Attorneys’ General Act (“PAGA”), which claims, according to current California precedent, are not subject to arbitration based on Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, LLC, 59 Cal. 4th 348 (2014). Such filings have quadrupled over the past decade and, in 2021, continued their upward trajectory. The following graphic illustrates this trend.

In a major turn of events for employers, on December 15, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a petition for certiorari filed in Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana, No. 20-1573 (Dec. 15, 2021), to review whether courts can exclude claims brought under the PAGA from federal arbitration requirements, paving the way for a potentially transformative ruling. The Supreme Court’s ruling could dictate the future of the PAGA as a workaround to workplace arbitration, especially as states outside California have considered similar legislation.

On a different front, advocates for workers and labor expanded their efforts to shift this landscape by backing new legislation that would amend federal law to ban mandatory arbitration agreements, depending on the bill, for employment, consumer, antitrust, civil rights, or sexual harassment disputes.

Arbitration agreements have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, especially with regard to claims for sexual harassment and assault arising during employment. A number of states have attempted to limit employers’ ability to require arbitration of such claims, including states such as California, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, and Washington, which have passed statutes in recent years limiting employers’ ability to require arbitration. Most of these efforts, however, have conflicted with the FAA. As a result, worker advocates have targeted their efforts toward amending the FAA or passing laws that limit or prohibit arbitration of workplace disputes.

Multiple proposals have made their way to Congress. In 2021, Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) co-sponsored the “Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault & Sexual Harassment Act of 2021” (S. 2342). The bill has 17 other sponsors, including 10 Democrats and 7 Republicans, and a companion bill introduced in the House (H.R. 4445) has 14 Democratic and 5 Republican sponsors. The Act would amend the FAA to prohibit predispute arbitration agreements, including agreements with class or collective action waivers, for claims involving sexual assault or sexual harassment.

The Resolving Sexual Assault and Harassment Disputes Act of 2021 (S. 3143) was introduced by Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA). The bill would amend the FAA to prohibit arbitration of sexual assault claims and allow for arbitration of sexual harassment claims under limited circumstances. Finally, the Build Back Better Act (H.R. 5376) contains, among many other provisions, language that would overrule the Supreme Court’s decision in Epic Systems by banning collective action waivers in arbitration agreements. This bill passed the House but currently faces unanimous Republican opposition in the Senate. Thus, its prospects are uncertain.

In light of current administrative priorities, the future remains anything but clear as to whether arbitration programs will remain viable tools to counter proposed workplace class actions in the face of continued attacks on Epic Systems. These federal developments suggest that some version of an arbitration bill, particularly if tailored to sexual assault and harassment claims, has a good chance of becoming law.

By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Thomas E. Ahlering, Alex W. Karasik

Seyfarth Synopsis:  After a defendant in a biometric privacy class action lawsuit unilaterally implemented an arbitration clause, a federal court in Illinois granted the company’s motion to compel arbitration, holding that the plaintiff previously agreed to allow unilateral modifications of the agreement without notice, and that she agreed to arbitrate by continuing to use the defendant’s website. In this respect, the ruling in Miracle-Pond, et al. v. Shutterfly, Inc., No. 19-CV-4722, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86083 (N.D. Ill. May 15, 2020), is important for workplace arbitration agreements in general and defense of workplace class actions in particular.

For companies defending class action lawsuits, this ruling provides a new angle of attack for these bet the company cases, by taking them into a single-plaintiff arbitration forum.

Case Background

Plaintiff was a Shutterfly user that registered for an account in August 2014 via mobile app.  The terms of use for the account, which she accepted, included a class action waiver.  Id. at *3.  In May 2015, Shutterfly added an arbitration provision to its terms of use.  Every version of Shutterfly’s terms of use since May 2015, including the most recent version from September 2019, has included an arbitration provision.

In June 2019, Plaintiff filed a class action lawsuit in Illinois state court alleging that Shutterfly violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”) by using facial-recognition technology to extract biometric identifiers for “tagging” individuals and by “selling, leasing, trading, or otherwise profiting from Plaintiffs’ and Class Members’ biometric identifiers and/or biometric information.”  Id. at *5.  In July 2019, Shutterfly removed the lawsuit to federal court.

In September 2019, about three months after the lawsuit was filed, Shutterfly sent an email to all of its users nationwide. The email notified Shutterfly users that the terms of use had been updated. After listing various updates, in relevant part, the email indicated that, “We also updated our Terms of Use to clarify your legal rights in the event of a dispute and how disputes will be resolved in arbitration.”  Id.  Finally, the email advised users: “If you do not contact us to close your account by October 1, 2019, or otherwise continue to use our websites and/or mobile applications, you accept these updated terms.”  Id.

Shutterfly’s records indicated that the plaintiff opened that email on September 8, 2019, and that as of October 2, 2019, her account remained open. Shutterfly moved to compel arbitration. In opposition, Plaintiffs argued the September 2019 email “was an improper ex parte communication with Plaintiff and putative class members because it failed to advise them of the pending litigation while seeking to deprive them of their rights as plaintiffs or class members.”  Id.

The Court’s Decision

The Court granted Shutterfly’s motion to compel arbitration.  After finding that the plaintiff agreed to be bound by Shutterfly’s terms of use, the Court addressed the plaintiff’s arguments that even if a contract formed between the parties, there was no valid agreement to arbitrate because: (i) arbitration clauses subject to unilateral modification are illusory; (ii) she could not have assented to the arbitration provision because Shutterfly failed to provide notice of the 2015 modification; and (iii) arbitration clauses that apply retroactively are unenforceable.  Plaintiff further argued that even if the arbitration clause was valid, the plaintiff could not waive the right to class arbitration of the claim for an injunction.

First, the Court rejected the plaintiff’s argument that arbitration clauses subject to unilateral modification are illusory. It cited several Illinois decisions that allowed parties to agree to authorize one party to modify a contract unilaterally.  Id. at *11-12.  Second, the Court rejected the plaintiff’s argument that she could not assent to an arbitration provision of which she had no notice. The Court reasoned that when she entered into a service contract with Shutterfly in 2014, she explicitly gave Shutterfly the right to unilaterally modify the agreement at any time and without notice.  Third, the Court rejected the plaintiff’s argument that arbitration clauses that apply retroactively are unenforceable. It found that the plaintiff agreed to her arbitrate her claims in the 2015 modification, thus mooting the retroactive arbitration argument.

Finally, the Court addressed the plaintiff’s argument that under McGill v. Citibank, 393 P.3d 85 (Cal. 2017), the plaintiff could not waive the right to class arbitration of the claim for an injunction prohibiting Shutterfly from continuing to collect face scans of Illinois residents notwithstanding the class waiver provision in the terms of use.  Id. at *17. Shutterfly argued that the McGill rule only applied to claims arising under California’s consumer protection laws, and that the plaintiff in this case was not seeking a public injunction, but a private one.  The Court agreed with Shutterfly’s position, holding that the plaintiffs’ substantive claim arose under an Illinois statute, the BIPA, and did not arise under the consumer protection laws of California, and therefore the McGill rule did not apply to the arbitration agreement in this case.  Accordingly, the Court granted Shutterfly’s motion to compel arbitration.

Implications For Employers

Over the last several years, many businesses have been implementing arbitration clauses in both employment and consumer agreements.  Accordingly, it is possible that upon entering into agreements, many employees and consumers may not have initially agreed to arbitrate disputes and waive their rights to initiate class action litigation.  When businesses are thus confronted with large scale class action claims, the ruling in Miracle-Pond, et al. v. Shutterfly, Inc. demonstrates that it would be worth their while to closely examine modifications of dispute resolution provisions to determine if there is a potential avenue to attack class action claims.  In addition, businesses without arbitration provisions may consider implementing this mechanism to deter potential litigants from filing class action lawsuits.

By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Michael L. DeMarino, and Andrew Cockroft

Seyfarth Synopsis: Complex class actions often present a scenario in which some or most of the putative class members are subject to arbitration agreements, but the named plaintiff is not. In Gembarski v. PartsSource, Inc., No. 2018-0125, 2019 Ohio LEXIS 1639 (Ohio Aug. 14, 2019), the Supreme Court of Ohio concluded that because the defendant could not have raised an arbitration defense against the named plaintiff prior to class certification, such a defense did not have to be raised in the Answer. For this reason the defendant was not precluded from raising arbitration as a defense to class certification for putative class members.

Background

In Gembarski v. PartsSource, Inc., No. 2018-0125, 2019 Ohio LEXIS 1639 at 2 (Ohio Aug. 14, 2019), Plaintiff filed a class action complaint against his employer, PartsSource, alleging that the company improperly withheld commissions that he and other putative class members earned while working as account managers. PartsSource filed an answer to the complaint, denying any wrong-doing and denying that the suit could be maintained as a class action. Id. at 4.

Eventually, Plaintiff filed a motion to certify the case as a class action and PartsSource opposed the motion. Specifically, PartsSource argued that Plaintiff could not meet the typicality or adequacy requirements for class certification because, unlike members of the putative class, Plaintiff did not sign an arbitration agreement agreeing to arbitrate claims on an individual basis. PartsSource argued that Plaintiff’s interests were divergent from those putative members who were subject to an arbitration defense.  Id. at 5-6.

Plaintiff, however, argued that PartsSource had waived its arbitration defense because PartsSource had not asserted an “arbitration defense” in its answer prior to raising it at the class certification stage. Id. at *7. PartsSource countered that it never had a right to demand arbitration from Plaintiff and contended that it would have been premature to raise any argument related to arbitration prior to the class certification phase of the litigation. Id.

The Decision

The Ohio Supreme Court ultimately agreed with PartsSource, holding that, when a case originates with a single named plaintiff and that plaintiff is not subject to an arbitration agreement that was agreed to by unnamed putative class members, the defendant need not raise a specific argument relating to arbitration in the defendant’s answer.

The Supreme Court explained that “[a]rbitration as a defense to an action is a concept that is separate from arbitration as an attack on a plaintiff’s” satisfaction of the requirement to certify a class.  Id. at 12. Because PartsSource had no duty to raise with specificity a class certification argument in its Answer, such an argument was not waived by failing to raise it at that time. The appropriate time to raise such an argument was precisely when PartsSource did so: at the certification stage. Id. at 21.

Implication For Employers

The decision in Gembarski gives employers more time to investigate and contemplate unique defenses to class certification. However, the best practice for employers battling class actions is to raise arbitration as a defense in an answer, as that will altogether preclude plaintiffs from asserting a waiver argument. Outside of the potential for waiver, employers must be sure to investigate every potential avenue for defeating the class as early as possible in the case. Arbitration defenses and other similar defenses that can defeat class certification should be developed and flagged early in every class action.

By James M. Hlawek, Shireen Wetmore, Gena Usenheimer, and Richard L. Alfred

Seyfarth Synopsis: Today the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision in the Lamps Plus, Inc. v. Varela class action arbitration case.  The holding and rationale are important to employers because the Court decisively ruled that class arbitration “fundamentally” changes the nature of the “traditional individualized arbitration” envisioned by the Federal Arbitration Act and, for that reason, requires an express agreement of the parties to be compelled. In so ruling, the Court rejected the basis of the Ninth Circuit’s contrary ruling, which had found the arbitration agreement at issue to be ambiguous and, applying California state contract law that contractual ambiguities should be construed against the drafter, held that the agreement allowed for class arbitration. Relying on its prior class action arbitration decisions, the Court found that such an approach is “flatly inconsistent with the ‘foundational FAA principle that arbitration is a matter of consent.’” How this part of today’s decision will impact Plaintiffs’ efforts to use state laws to invalidate arbitration agreements will undoubtedly be the subject of future litigation, but it is now clear that courts can no longer order class arbitration unless there is an arbitration agreement expressly authorizing it. 

What Did The Supreme Court Hold?

The Supreme Court held today that courts cannot order an arbitration to be conducted on a class-wide basis unless there is an arbitration agreement that expressly authorizes class arbitration. The Supreme Court previously held in its Stolt-Nielsen decision that a court may not compel class arbitration when an agreement is “silent” on the availability of such arbitration. Now the Supreme Court has gone a step further. Courts cannot compel arbitration when an arbitration agreement is ambiguous about the availability of class arbitration.

The parties — Lamps Plus and Varela, an employee of Lamps Plus — had an arbitration agreement that was ambiguous about the availability of class arbitration. Certain phrases, particularly the use of “I” and “my” throughout the agreement, seemed to contemplate purely individual arbitration. Other phrases, such as one stating that “arbitration shall be in lieu of any and all lawsuits or other civil legal proceedings relating to my employment,” the employee argued, were broad enough to suggest class arbitration. The employee sued Lamps Plus on behalf of a class of employees whose personal information had allegedly been compromised.

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s order compelling not individual arbitration, as the company had sought, but class arbitration. In deciding whether to compel class arbitration, the Ninth Circuit relied on California state law principles in applying a doctrine know as contra proferentem, which means that ambiguous terms in a contract should be construed against the drafter. In applying this doctrine, the Ninth Circuit found that the ambiguous terms of the parties’ agreement should be interpreted against Lamps Plus — the drafter of the agreement — and in favor of the employee, who argued for class arbitration.

The Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit’s decision with five justices joining in the opinion. Relying on its past decisions in Stolt-Nielsen, Concepcion, and Epic Systems, the Court made clear that class arbitration “fundamentally changes” the nature of “traditional individualized arbitration” envisioned by the Federal Arbitration Act in several ways, including making the process slower, more costly, and “more likely to generate procedural morass than final judgment.” Because arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act is strictly a matter of the parties’ consent, the Court found that applying contra proferentem to allow class arbitration under an ambiguous agreement is “flatly inconsistent with the ‘foundational FAA principle that arbitration is a matter of consent.’”  The Court, therefore, found that the Ninth Circuit decision ordering class arbitration was improper and reversed.

No Decision On Who Should Decide Whether An Agreement Allows For Class Arbitration  

In a footnote, the Court stated that it was not deciding whether the availability of class arbitration is a “question of arbitrability” that is presumptively for courts (rather than arbitrators) to decide. The Court pointed out that the parties had agreed that a court should decide the issue, and therefore concluded that the question was not at issue. Thus, while every circuit court that has addressed the issue has found that the availability of class arbitration is a “question of arbitrability” for courts to decide in the absence of an express agreement to the contrary, the Supreme Court still has not decided the issue.

What Does The Lamps Plus Decision Mean For Employers?

The decision is an important victory for employers. Courts can no longer order class arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act unless the employers’ arbitration agreement unambiguously authorizes class arbitration. Under the Lamps Plus decision, employers no longer face the risk that ambiguous phrases in their agreements will lead to class arbitration. Only express agreements can lead to class arbitration. While many employers have revised existing arbitration agreements or adopted new ones since Epic Systems that include express class arbitration waivers, those employers with older clauses using generic language to the effect that all employment disputes are subject to arbitration benefit from today’s opinion.

The decision did not, however, close the door on future litigation as far as the availability of class arbitration. Plaintiffs will likely continue attempts to use principles of state contract laws to invalidate arbitration agreements. Lamps Plus, however, should significantly narrow the successful use of such laws to the extent they “target arbitration either by name or by more subtle methods…” In this light, even general contract principles such as unconscionability cannot stand in the way of arbitration enforcement if they over-ride the “foundational FAA principle that arbitration is a matter of consent.”

Additionally, Justice Ginsburg argued in her dissenting opinion that Congress should act to “correct” the elevation of the FAA over “the rights of employees and consumers” to bring class actions. Congress could, therefore, someday pass legislation that would make class arbitration more widely available.

Thus, despite the fact that the Lamps Plus decision makes it less likely that employers will face class arbitration, we continue to urge employers to have their employment agreements reviewed by experienced counsel and revised consistently with this and prior Supreme Court opinions.

By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. and Michael L. DeMarino

Seyfarth Synopsis:  In the midst of a legal landscape that is seemingly pro-arbitration, employers should recognize that employees still have a few strategies to oppose arbitration or invalidate an arbitration agreement. The recent ruling of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Buchanan, et. al. v. Tata Consultancy Services, Ltd., 15-CV-01696 (N.D. Cal. Jul. 23, 2018), is a good reminder for employers that arbitration agreements are still susceptible to challenges like waiver and unconscionability. Employers faced with class actions involving a mix of class members who signed and did not sign arbitration agreements should be careful to preserve their right to enforce the agreements. 

At the same time, this decision in Buchanan is important because it held that a private, individual plaintiff is not entitled to rely on the pattern and practice burden shifting framework articulated in Teams Int’l Bhd. of Teamsters v. U.S., 431 U.S. 324, 360 (1977) – an issue that the Ninth Circuit has not yet addressed.

Background:

In Buchanan, et. al. v. Tata Consultancy Services, Ltd., No. 15-CV-01696 (N.D. Cal. Jul. 23, 2018), four plaintiffs sued Tata Consultancy Services, Ltd. (“TCS”), alleging disparate treatment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Specifically, plaintiffs claimed that TCS, which is headquartered in India, maintained a pattern and practice of intentional discrimination in its United States workforce by favoring persons who are South Asian or of Indian National Origin. TCS provides consulting and outsourcing services, and plaintiffs claimed that TCS favored individuals who are predominately South Asian when assigning individuals to open client projects. After class certification briefing, the district court certified a class consisting of all individuals “who are not of South Asian race or Indian  nation origin who were employed by [CTS]  . . . and were terminated . . . .” Id. at 6.

After the class was certified, TCS brought a motion to bifurcate the claims of Plaintiff Buchanan from those of other plaintiffs and a motion to compel arbitration. The district court granted both motions.

The Decision

As a threshold matter, the district court held that Plaintiff Buchanan was not entitled to rely on the pattern and practice framework for proving employment discrimination under Int’l Bhd. of Teamsters v. U.S., 431 U.S. 324, 360 (1977). Buchanan was not a member of the class because, unlike the class, he was never employed by TCS. Under the Teamsters framework, the burden shifts to the employer to defeat a prima facie showing of a pattern or practice by demonstrating that the plaintiffs’ proof is either inaccurate or insignificant.

Although the Ninth Circuit has not addressed whether an individual private plaintiff may use the Teamsters framework, the district court held that pattern and practice method of proof is not available to private plaintiffs. “To allow this expansion of Teamsters,” the district court reasoned, “would ‘conflict with the Supreme Court’s oft-repeated holding . . . that ultimate burden of persuading the trier of fact that the defendant intentionally discriminated against plaintiffs remains at all times with the plaintiff.” Buchanan, et. al. v. Tata Consultancy Services, Ltd., at 8. Because Plaintiff Buchanan, as an individual private plaintiff, was subject to a different burden shifting framework than will govern the claims of the class, the district court concluded that bifurcating his claims from those of the class would avoid confusion at trial and support judicial economy.

As to TCS’s motion to compel arbitration, plaintiffs argued that TCS waived its right to demand arbitration and that the arbitration agreement contained impermissible waiver and unconscionable provisions. Addressing plaintiffs’ waiver argument, the district court concluded that although TCS waited until the fourth amended complaint to assert its right to arbitrate, TCS had notified plaintiffs of its intent enforce the agreement as soon as plaintiffs implicated a potential plaintiff to whom the agreement applied. Hence, the district court concluded that plaintiffs were on notice and granting TCS’s motion would not prejudice plaintiffs.

The district court similarly rejected plaintiffs’ contention that the arbitration agreement contained an impermissible prospective waiver of an employee’s federal anti-discrimination rights. The district court ultimately disagreed that Teamsters pattern and practice burden-shifting framework is a substantive right. The district court likewise rejected plaintiffs’ argument that the arbitration agreement was unconscionable because of a “selective[] overlay [of] a pro-Defendant subset of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. ” Id. at 14. Plaintiffs challenged the arbitration agreement because it did not provide employees the opportunity to file motions to strike or motions for judgment on the pleadings. The district court, however, concluded that these limitations did not rise to the level of unconscionability. It reasoned that “[m]otions to strike are disfavored . . . . and Motions for judgment on the pleadings are easily recast” into motions for summary judgment. Id.

Implication For Employers:

This case is a valuable reminder for employers with arbitration agreements that it is still best practice to avoid acting inconsistent with the right to arbitration, lest you supply plaintiffs with a waiver argument. Employers facing a class mixed with employees who signed and did not sign arbitration agreements should be careful preserve their right to enforce arbitration agreements. This may include notifying plaintiffs of the existence of the arbitrations agreement and your intent to enforce the agreement as soon as a plaintiff enters the case to whom the agreement is applicable.

 

By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr.

Seyfarth Synopsis: On April 30, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari in Lamps Plus Inc. v. Varela, No. 17-988. This matter, which involves the interpretation of workplace arbitration agreements, has the potential to significantly impact class action litigation. In today’s video, Partner Jerry Maatman of Seyfarth Shaw explains the legal framework of this case, as well as its importance for employers.

Lamps Plus Inc. v. Varela began as a putative class action filed in 2016 after a phishing incident at Lamps Plus. Specifically, Plaintiff Frank Varela’s tax information was compromised when an unknown individual posed as a company executive and gained access to confidential employee data. However, Lamps Plus argued that the company’s arbitration agreement signed by Varela mandated that his claims be handled through arbitration on an individual basis, thereby precluding his class action. Both the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit agreed with Varela’s argument that the arbitration agreement allowed for class arbitration.

The major question in this case regards the circumstances in which class arbitration can be compelled under the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”). Though the Supreme Court agreed to review this question in the near future, it answered nearly the same question in 2010 in a case entitled Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v. AnimalFeeds International Corp., in which it held that class arbitration is authorized only when all parties specifically agree to it. Within the next 6-12 months, we can expect the Supreme Court to again a decision on this important class action topic.

Implications For Employers

Employers and human resources personnel who handle employment contracts should keep a close eye on this case. The decision in Lamps Plus Inc. v. Varela may very well impact an employer’s process in drafting arbitration clauses.

Furthermore, the Supreme Court’s decision to review this matter, while also considering Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, No. 16-285, indicates a significant interest in class action issues. Both of these matters have the potential to greatly impact employment class action litigation. Make sure to watch the video above for a detailed explanation of the Varela debate, and stay tuned to our blog for the latest updates!

250px-US-CourtOfAppeals-8thCircuit-SealBy Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. and Michael L. DeMarino

Seyfarth Synopsis:  After thirty-three former employees who signed release agreements requiring individual arbitration of ADEA claims collectively sued their employer for age discrimination, the employer moved to compel individual arbitration. The District Court denied the company’s motion. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed because it found that the ADEA did not contain a “contrary congressional command” overriding the FAA’s mandate to enforce arbitration agreements.

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Case Background

In McLeod, et. al. v. General Mills, Inc., No. 15-3540, 2017 WL 1363797 (8th Cir. Apr. 14, 2017), thirty-three former employees of General Mills (the “Company”) were offered severance packages and signed release agreements in which they agreed to individually arbitrate claims relating to their termination—including, specifically,  ADEA claims. Id. at *1. Despite agreeing to individual arbitration, the employees collectively sued the Company in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, alleging various ADEA violations. The Company moved to compel arbitration, and the District Court denied that motion.  Id.

On appeal, the Eighth Circuit reversed the District Court’s denial of the Company’s motion to compel arbitration. The Eighth Circuit held that Section 626(f) of the ADEA does not contain a contrary congressional command to override the Federal Arbitration Act’s (“FAA”) mandate to enforce arbitration agreements. Id. at *2-3. At the core of this holding was the Eighth Circuit’s decision that the “right” to a jury trial and the “right” to proceed in a collective action, are not substantive ADEA rights. Id

This decision is important because it addresses the fundamental question of whether employment agreements that require individual arbitration run afoul of the ADEA and its provisions authorizing plaintiffs to sue collectively.

Unlike other decisions involving the clash of arbitration agreements and 29 U.S.C. § 216(b), the Eighth Circuit’s decision in McLeod resolves the tension between, on the one hand the FAA’s mandate to enforce arbitration agreements, and on the other hand, the ADEA’s requirement in  § 626(f) that a party must prove in a “court of competent jurisdiction” that the waiver of ADEA rights was “knowing and voluntary.”

Because the Eighth Circuit determined that the “waiver” of rights in Section 626(f) refers only to the waiver of substantive ADEA rights and because the “right” to a jury trial and the “right” to proceed in a collective action are not “rights” under § 626(f), it held that there was no “waiver” for purposes of  § 626(f).

Case Background

In 2012, the Company terminated 850 of its employees. These employees were offered severance packages in exchange for signing release agreements. Id at *1. The release agreements required the employees to release the Company from all claims related to their termination, including claims under the ADEA. Id.

The release agreements also contained a dispute resolution provision that required the employees to submit any claim covered by the release agreement to arbitration on an individual basis. Id.

Thirty-three of the employees who were terminated in 2012 sued the Company in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. Specifically, the employees sought a declaratory judgment that the releases were not “knowing and voluntary,” as required by 29 U.S.C. § 626(f)(1). The employees also asserted collective and individual claims for alleged ADEA violations. Id.

The Company moved to compel arbitration of the employees’ claims, and the District Court denied that motion. Id. The Company subsequently appealed to the Eighth Circuit.

The Eighth Circuit’s Decision

On appeal, the employees argued that ADEA §  626(f) contains the necessary “contrary congressional command” to render their release agreements invalid. Id. at *2. Specifically, the employees relied on two related sections of the ADEA to argue that compelling arbitration results is an effective waiver of their substantive rights under the ADEA. Id. These two sections are § 626(f)(1) and § 626(f)(3).

Section 626(f)(1) of the ADEA prohibits the waiver of any ADEA right or claim — unless the waiver is “knowing and voluntary.” 29 U.S.C. § 626(f)(1). Whereas, § 626(f)(3) describes how to prove a “waiver,” requiring that the “the party asserting the validity of a waiver shall have the burden of proving in a court of competent jurisdiction that a waiver was knowing and voluntary . . . .”  Id (citing 29 U.S.C. § 626(f)(3)). (emphasis added). 

The employees argued that, by moving to compel arbitration of their claims, the Company was asserting the validity of a waiver — by forcing them to forego their “right” to a jury trial and their “right” to proceed by class action. Id.

The Eighth Circuit rejected this argument. “In § 626(f),” it explained, ‘“waiver’ refers narrowly to waiver of substantive ADEA rights or claims — not, as the former employees argued, the ‘right’ to a jury trial or the ‘right’ to proceed in a class action.” Id. (emphasis in original).

In reaching that decision, the Eighth Circuit cited 14 Penn Plaza LLC v. Pyett, 556 U.S. 247 (2009). In that case, the Supreme Court interpreted § 626(f)(1)’s references to “‘right[s] or claim[s]’ to mean substantive rights to be free from age discrimination, not procedural ‘rights’ to pursue age discrimination claims in court.” Id. Noting that Penn Plaza controls, the Eighth Circuit explained that the “specific ‘rights’ the former employees cite are not ‘rights’ under § 626(f)(1).” Id. The Eighth Circuit therefor decided that no “rights or claims” are “waived” by agreeing to bring claims in arbitration. Id.

The Eighth Circuit also rejected the employees’ argument that § 626(b), by incorporating 29 U.S.C. § 216(b), gives them a “right” to bring a collective action. Id. at 3. Before making short shrift of this argument, the Eighth Circuit noted that the ADEA borrows the procedural collective action mechanism from § 216(b) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). Section 626(b) incorporates § 216(b), which allows an employee to sue on behalf of himself “and other employees similarly situated.” 29 U.S.C. § 216(b). Thus, the Eighth Circuit explained that § 626(b) expressly allows employees to bring collective actions for age discrimination. McLeod, 2017 WL 1363797 at *3.

Although the Eighth Circuit acknowledged that the ADEA expressly authorizes employees to sue collectively, it held that § 626(b) does not create a non-waivable, substantive right to do so. Citing its decision in Owen v. Bristol Care, Inc., 702 F.3d 1050, 1052 (8th Cir. 2013), the Eighth Circuit first explained that “[s]tanding alone, § 216(b) does not create a non-waivable substantive right; rather, its class-action authorization can be waived by a valid arbitration agreement.” Id.  The Eighth Circuit then found no convincing reason why § 626(b)’s incorporation of § 216(b) would “elevate the procedural class-action authorization to a substantive § 626(f)(1) ‘right.’” Id.

Ultimately, the Eighth Circuit concluded that the ADEA does not provide a “contrary congressional command” overriding the FAA’s mandate to enforce agreements to arbitrate ADEA claims, and that the District Court should have granted the Company’s motion to compel arbitration. Id.

Next, the employees argued that an arbitration panel could not grant them their declaratory relief — i.e., decide the question of whether their waiver of substantive ADEA rights was “knowing and voluntary.” Id. at 4. Specifically, the employees argued that this question can only be resolved in court because of § 626(f)(1)’s mandatory language “shall have the burden of proving in a court of competent jurisdiction.” Id. (emphasis added).

The Eighth Circuit declined to decide this issue, finding, instead, that the question was not justiciable. Id. Because the Company had not yet asserted that any of the employees had in fact waived their ADEA claims, and because the employees were seeking declaratory relief only “if and to the extent” the Company asserted that defense, the Eighth Circuit concluded that the employees’ declaratory relief was hypothetical. Id. “No Article III case or controversy arises,” it explained, “when plaintiffs seek a ‘declaratory judgment as to the validity of a defense’ that a defendant ‘may or may not, raise.’” Id. Accordingly, the Eighth Circuit held that the District Court did not have jurisdiction to decide whether the employees’ waiver was “knowing and voluntary.” Id.

Implication For Employers

This decision is important for employers, but less so for the reasons one might imagine. The reality is that this decision does little to alter the ADEA judicial landscape. More than two decades ago the Supreme Court held in Gilmer v. Interstate/Johnson Lane Corp. that ADEA claims could be subjected to compulsory, individual arbitration, even though collective actions are permitted under the ADEA by the identical statutory language as the FLSA. See Gilmer v. Interstate/Johnson Lane Corp., 500 U.S. 20, 32 (1991). While Gilmer did not specifically touch on the interplay between § 626(f) and the FAA, it is a bit surprising that a discussion of Gilmer is altogether absent from the Eighth Circuit’s decision.

One take away is that employers can remain confident that provisions requiring individual arbitration of ADEA claims will not result in a prohibited waiver of an employees’ rights under the ADEA.

This decision also sheds light on an important strategy consideration. Employers that assert waiver as a defense may find themselves litigating the validity of that waiver (i.e., whether the waiver was knowing and voluntary) in court — even though the employees agreed to arbitrate their claims. Hence, employers will likely need to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of defending an ADEA violation on the merits in arbitration versus adopting a waiver defense in court.

By Christopher Cascino

On December 23, 2014, in Ruiz v. Moss Brothers Auto Group, Inc., 2014 Cal. App. LEXIS 1176 (Cal. App. Ct. 4th Dist. Dec. 23, 2014), the California Appellate Court joined a number of other state and federal courts in holding that employers need to provide strict proof that electronically signed employment arbitration agreements were, in fact, signed by the complaining employee.

Workplace arbitration agreements are becoming increasingly important as risk management tools in defending against class actions. This case is a reminder for employers that, though electronically signed employment arbitration agreements are generally held to be valid, employers need to make sure that they can prove with certainty under the laws of their respective states that their employees are the ones who electronically signed these agreements.

Background Of The Case

The plaintiff, Ernesto Ruiz, filed a putative class action against his employer, Moss Brothers Auto Group, alleging that Moss Brothers failed to pay himself and other employees overtime and to provide required meal and rest breaks. Ruiz sought civil penalties for these violations on behalf of himself, his fellow employees, and the State of California.

Moss Brothers moved to compel arbitration because, according to Moss Brothers, Ruiz had electronically signed an arbitration agreement. That arbitration agreement provided that Ruiz would have to bring any employment dispute before an arbitrator, and further provided that the arbitrator could “hear only . . . individual claims” and had no authority to “consolidate[] the claims of others into one proceeding.”

Ruiz opposed arbitration and submitted a declaration in which he said that he did not recall signing the arbitration agreement and that, moreover, he would not have signed any agreement that would have limited his ability to sue Moss Brothers.

Moss Brothers countered Ruiz’s declaration with a declaration of its own, stating that “Each employee is required to log into the Company’s HR system — each with his or her unique login ID and password — to review and electronically execute the Employee Acknowledgement form, which includes the arbitration agreement. While all employees are required to sign the form, they are free to review it at their leisure while logged into the HR system.” It also produced a copy of the arbitration agreement at issue in the case with the phrases “Ernesto Zamora Ruiz (Electronic Signature)” and “9/21/2011 11:47:27 AM” under the signature and date lines of the agreement.

The Court’s Ruling

The Court of Appeal upheld the trial court’s finding that Moss Brothers had not proven by a preponderance of the evidence that Ruiz was the one who electronically signed the arbitration agreement. Specifically, the Court of Appeal found that it could not infer that Ruiz signed the arbitration agreement simply because the arbitration agreement was “presented to all Moss Bros. employees . . . and each employee is required to log into the company’s HR system, using his or her unique login ID and password, to review and sign the Employee Acknowledgment form.” It said that, without some additional explanation of how this would prove that it was Ruiz who signed the agreement, there was a “critical gap” that prevented the Court from concluding that Ruiz signed the agreement.

Other courts have made similar rulings. For example, in Kerr v. Dillard Store Servs., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11792 (D. Kan. Feb. 17, 2009), an employee who brought a racial discrimination claim against her employer claimed that the arbitration agreement she allegedly signed electronically must have been signed on accident by a secretary who was logged into her computer because she would have refused to sign the agreement. The court refused to enforce the employment arbitration agreement because the employer “did not have adequate procedures to maintain the security of intranet passwords, to restrict authorized access to the screen which permitted electronic execution of the arbitration agreement, to determine whether electronic signatures were genuine or to determine who opened individual emails.” The court went on to find that, as a result, “it is not inconceivable [the secretary] or a supervisor logged on to plaintiff’s account and executed the agreement,” and thus that the employer had not proven by a preponderance of the evidence that the employee had signed the arbitration agreement.

Similarly, in Neuson v. Macy’s Department Stores Inc., 249 P.2d 1054 (Wash. App. 2011), an employer tried to enforce an electronically signed employment arbitration agreement, arguing that the fact that the employee’s social security number, birth date, and zip code were entered on the electronic signature showed that the agreement was signed by the employee. The Washington Appellate Court disagreed because the employer could not show “how or why the information on th[e] electronic signature would be unavailable to anyone other than” the plaintiff.

Implications for Employers

While courts generally find that complaining employees did, in fact, electronically sign employment arbitration agreements, employers should, in light of cases such as Ruiz, Kerr, and Neuson, take steps to make sure that they can prove that electronically signed employment arbitration agreements were signed by each of their employees. The question of whether an arbitration agreement exists is generally a question of state law. See Perry v. Thomas, 482 U.S. 483, 492 n. 9 (1987). Because of this, employers should look to cases in their own state finding that employers proved that their employees had electronically signed employment arbitration agreements and implement the procedures used by the employers in those cases. By doing so, employers can not only greatly reduce the risk of an adverse ruling on whether an arbitration agreement was electronically signed but also the unnecessary expense of litigating that issue.