173 results for 'cat:"Arbitration" AND cat:"Employment"'.
J. Joseph grants summary judgment to both Morton’s Salt and the union local for its Louisiana salt mine, dismissing breach-of-duty claims brought by an electrician’s apprentice fired for admittedly violating one of the company’s “cardinal” safety rules. While the fired employee points out certain procedural defects in how the union handled his grievance, the union’s actions did not constitute a breach of its duty of fair representation. Further, the apprentice and his electrician admitted to violating safety protocols, and Morton had previously fired three or four other employees for violating its “cardinal rules.” Last December, the U.S. Department of Labor cited Morton’s Louisiana mine for a “pattern” of health or safety violations that could end in serious injury or illness, the first time a U.S. mine had been so sanctioned since 2014.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Joseph, Filed On: September 6, 2023, Case #: 6:22cv1863, NOS: Labor/Management Relations - Labor, Categories: arbitration, employment, Labor / Unions
J. Rodriguez finds a lower court erred in denying a truck company's motion to stay proceedings and compel arbitration in a lawsuit stemming from a fatal workplace accident. While the worker's widow argues the company is liable for the death because it allegedly failed to train the worker on safe ladder use, there was nonetheless a valid arbitration agreement covering claims that the widow is now making. Reversed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Rodriguez, Filed On: September 1, 2023, Case #: 08-22-00226-CV, Categories: arbitration, employment, Wrongful Death
J. Richman finds that, according to a recent California Supreme Court decision, the trial court erred in denying an employer's motion to compel arbitration of its employees' individual Private Attorneys General Act claims. However, the employees' Act claims for labor law violations suffered by other employees may proceed to trial. Reversed in part.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Richman, Filed On: August 31, 2023, Case #: A165445, Categories: arbitration, employment
J. Fox finds that the lower court properly upheld the damages award in an employment dispute in which a doctor was sued for violating a non-compete clause with his former company when he opened his own cardiology office after being fired. The lower court found in favor of the former employer, but also determined the doctor was entitled to half of his deferred compensation without interest. The doctor challenged the lack of interest, but the arbitrator charged with making that determination has the discretion to decide if interest is appropriatea. There is nothing in that determination that suggests it was arbitrary or outside the arbitrator's authority. Affirmed.
Court: Wyoming Supreme Court, Judge: Fox, Filed On: August 28, 2023, Case #: S-22-0290, Categories: arbitration, employment
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J. Rubin grants a trade company and a sugar refinery their motion to vacate an arbitration award that went to a longshoremen's union after the refinery fired one a bulk storage foreman. The refinery had written the foreman up multiple times for tardiness, long absences, and leaving without notifying anyone, and fired him after three infractions. An arbitrator awarded the union its demands for the foreman's reinstatement and back pay because he believed the foreman's offenses weren't severe enough to breach the collective bargaining agreement. However, the award is vacated because the foreman's termination should have been based on his violations of the agreement itself, not on the arbitrator's opinion of how severely it was violated.
Court: USDC Maryland, Judge: Rubin, Filed On: August 24, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv2876, NOS: Labor/Management Relations - Labor, Categories: arbitration, employment, Labor / Unions
J. Park finds that the district court improperly confirmed an arbitration award and unsealed its provisions in age discrimination claims because the confirmation request was rendered moot when IBM fully paid the award, and attaching the confidential award to the action under seal and seeking unsealing was a tactic meant to skirt the terms of the award. Reversed in part.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Park, Filed On: August 14, 2023, Case #: 22-1240-cv, Categories: arbitration, Civil Procedure, employment Discrimination
J. Niemeyer finds the lower court improperly compelled the foreman and the oil company to resolve their contract dispute via arbitration. The arbitration clause was not in any contract between the foreman and the oil company, but rather in a contract between the foreman and a third-party company that had helped the foreman find the position with the oil company. Reversed
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Niemeyer, Filed On: August 7, 2023, Case #: 22-1480, Categories: arbitration, employment, Labor
J. Park finds that the district court properly dismissed claims of age discrimination by two dozen IBM Corp. employees who were terminated. The former workers missed the deadline set for initiating arbitration, and their attempt to use the "piggybacking rule" to attach to a timely age-discrimination case did not apply in arbitration. Furthermore, IBM's motion to seal documents from related arbitrations was properly granted under federal policy favoring confidentiality, especially in light of the employees' counsel attempting to skirt it by attaching them to a premature request for summary judgment. Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Park, Filed On: August 4, 2023, Case #: 22-1728-cv, Categories: arbitration, employment Discrimination
J. Rodriguez grants in part a security services company its motion to compel arbitration following race and national origin discrimination allegations brought by a former staff member who is an Ethiopian immigrant. The company has properly established an agreement with the staff member, and so the fact that both parties signed it subjects them to arbitration. However, the action will not be dismissed nor stayed until after arbitration.
Court: USDC Colorado, Judge: Rodriguez, Filed On: August 2, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv2409, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: arbitration, Civil Rights, employment Discrimination
J. Robbenhaar denies a supermarket company’s motion to dismiss after it was sued by a union seeking to compel compliance with arbitration procedures and to enforce agreements made through prior bargaining. The union has exhausted the grievance procedures available to it through the collective bargaining agreement, and without such an order from this court, the supermarket could once again go through the process of bargaining and arbitration before “again failing to comply with the agreed upon resolution.”
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Robbenhaar, Filed On: July 28, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv335, NOS: Labor/Management Relations - Labor, Categories: arbitration, employment, Labor / Unions
J. Montenegro finds that the operators of medical supply facilities, as non-signatories to an arbitration agreement, may not enforce its provisions as third-party beneficiaries in a suit brought against them by a worker alleging unpaid compensation. The worker's contract is with a temporary staffing company and the operators of the medical supply facilities fail to show that they are or were at any time "partners" of the staffing company. Furthermore, nothing in the arbitration agreement "evinces an intention to cover assignees or successors-in-interest."
Court: USDC Southern District of California, Judge: Montenegro, Filed On: July 19, 2023, Case #: 3:21cv1519, NOS: Other Labor Litigation - Labor, Categories: arbitration, employment
J. Liu holds that an employee who is required to arbitrate his or her individual Attorneys General Act claims does not lose standing as an aggrieved employee to litigate Act claims in court for labor code violations experienced by other employees. The fact of the labor code violation itself confers standing, which does not evaporate by the enforcement of an arbitration provision that requires that the employee's individual claims be heard in a non-court forum. Reversed.
Court: California Supreme Court, Judge: Liu, Filed On: July 17, 2023, Case #: S274671, Categories: arbitration, Civil Procedure, employment
J. Medina finds a lower court and arbitration panel erred in determining back pay owed to an employee in an employment dispute. While this case should be remanded to the arbitrator to resolve legal issues around exactly how much back pay that employee is owed, the district order was also wrong to grant a motion to compel back pay because it “did not have the power or authority to rule on the dispute,” which was “reserved for the arbitrator.” Reversed.
Court: New Mexico Court of Appeals, Judge: Medina, Filed On: July 17, 2023, Case #: A-1-CA-40179, Categories: arbitration, employment, Jurisdiction
J. Edison recommends granting Uber's motion to confirm an arbitration award in a case where a driver lost his claim Uber had mislabeled him an independent contractor, rather than an employee. The arbitrator properly construed the agreement between the parties, and the driver fails to show she was partial to Uber.
Court: USDC Southern District of Texas, Judge: Edison, Filed On: July 14, 2023, Case #: 4:22cv3876, NOS: Arbitration - Other Suits, Categories: arbitration, employment, Labor
J. Boardman grants a car dealership its motion to compel arbitration in this class action suit brought by former staff for alleged wage law violations. The class claims the dealership manipulated numbers to justify not paying class members their true commissions. However, class members also entered an arbitration agreement with the dealership upon hire, so they are not entitled to a jury trial.
Court: USDC Maryland, Judge: Boardman, Filed On: July 14, 2023, Case #: 8:22cv2312, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: arbitration, employment, Class Action
J. Saylor grants a company’s motion for arbitration and denies its motion for judgment on the pleadings of its employees as lacking statutory standing. The company’s employees sign an arbitration agreement as part of their employment and it is unclear at this time how the complaint’s Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 component will be resolved, so at this time arbitration may first occur.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Saylor, Filed On: July 13, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv11033, NOS: Fair Labor Standards Act - Labor, Categories: arbitration, employment, Labor
[Consolidated.] J. Chin finds that the district court improperly held that a bank's ex-employee could be compelled to arbitrate his termination and enjoined him from enforcing an Argentinian judgment holding that he was owed severance upon being unable to rejoin the Buenos Aires branch after losing his job in New York City. The court lacked subject matter jurisdiction because the Buenos Aires branch failed to establish its separate legal existence, and the corporate entity Citibank, the real party in interest, did not seek to substitute for the branch, leaving no adverse parties. Reversed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Chin, Filed On: July 12, 2023, Case #: 22-424-cv(L), Categories: arbitration, employment, Jurisdiction