NT Lakis attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court in an important case testing the claimed legal authority of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to bar enforcement of mandatory arbitration agreements that contain a class action waiver clause. Our brief urges the High Court to reverse a ruling by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Lewis v. Epic Systems that endorsed the NLRB’s disputed rule, arguing it conflicts directly with the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA).
In its controversial 2012 ruling in D.R. Horton, the NLRB concluded that restricting the availability of class procedures unlawfully interferes with the right of employees to engage in concerted activity for their “mutual aid and protection” as guaranteed under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
Our brief in the consolidated case of Epic Systems contends that the NLRB’s D.R. Horton rule is incompatible with the FAA, which has been consistently interpreted by the Supreme Court as expressing a federal policy favoring enforcement of arbitration agreements as written. We also point out that arbitration has been proven to be an effective (if not superior) means of resolving employment disputes, undermining the NLRB’s suggestion that forcing arbitration somehow deprives employees of their substantive rights.
Members of the Equal Employment Advisory Council (EEAC) can read more here.