United States Ninth Circuit

The district court's order granting defendant-employer's motion to compel arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act, and dismissing without prejudice the putative class action brought by plaintiff-former employee to recover unpaid overtime wages, is affirmed, where: 1) the arbitration agreement provided that employees who fail to opt out waive their right to pursue employment-related claims on a collective basis in any forum, judicial or arbitral; 2) the district court correctly held that the arbitration agreement was valid, and under the Federal Arbitration Act it must be enforced according to its terms; 3) plaintiff had the right to opt out of the arbitration agreement, and had she done so she would be free to pursue this class action in court; and 4) having freely elected to arbitrate employment related disputes on an individual basis, without interference from defendant, plaintiff could not claim that enforcement of the arbitration agreement violated either the Norris-LaGuardia Act or the National Labor Relations Act.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/23/2014
• Published 06/23/2014

Judges

• WATFORD

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel