Predispute Agreements to Arbitrate Statutory Employment Claims
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Description
The Supreme Court held in its 1991 ruling in Gilmer v. Interstate/Johnson Lane Corp. that, in view of the Federal Arbitration Act of 1925 (FAA), employees could enter into binding predispute arbitration agreements encompassing claims they have against employers under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), and by extension other federal and state employment laws. Because in that case the arbitration agreement was part of a registration process with the New York Stock Exchange, rather than a contract of employment directly between Gilmer and his former employer, the Court was able to avoid construing the reach of the exclusion in §1 of the FAA for "contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce." The scope of the FAA § 1 exclusion will have important practical implications for the future of arbitration of employment claims. In post-Gilmer rulings to date, the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Circuits and several district courts6 have narrowly read the exclusion as limited to seamen, railroad workers and others directly "engaged in" interstate commerce. Despite the clear trend of post-Gilmer decisions, however, there remains a good deal of uncertainty and controversy over whether predispute agreements to arbitrate statutory employment claims will or should be enforced. This paper addresses some of the policy and legal questions concerning predispute agreements between employers and employees to arbitrate future disputes whether they arise as a matter of contract or under employment discrimination statutes or other employment laws. Policy considerations are considered at the outset because they are likely heavily to influence how the legal issues raised by Gilmer ultimately will be resolved.
Source Publication
Proceedings of the New York University 49th Annual Conference on Labor
Source Editors/Authors
Samuel Estreicher
Publication Date
1997
Recommended Citation
Estreicher, Samuel, "Predispute Agreements to Arbitrate Statutory Employment Claims" (1997). Faculty Chapters. 472.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/472
