FEDERAL ARBITRATION ACT TRUMPS NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT

On May 21, 2018, the United States Supreme Court reaffirmed its oft stated observation that the U.S. Federal Arbitration Act (“Act”) requires courts “rigorously” to “enforce arbitration agreements according to their terms” “including with whom the parties choose to arbitrate”. The Court rejected arguments that the Act’s “saving clause”, which allows courts to refuse to enforce arbitration agreements “upon such grounds as exist at law or in equity for the revocation of any contract”, negates arbitration agreements between employers and employees that prohibit class or collective action, reasoning that the savings clause generally applies only to “contract defenses such as fraud, duress, or unconscionability”; and is not applicable in instances “that target arbitration either by name or more subtle methods”, including the suggestion that the National Labor Relations Act displaced the Federal Arbitration Act.

Epic Court Systems Corp. v. Lewis