Of all the federal circuit courts, I was not expecting the 7th Circuit to venture out on a limb to support the NLRB’s interpretation of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) as precluding class arbitration waivers.  After all, the 7th Circuit gets affirmed more than other circuit courts by SCOTUS, earning it a reputation for being fairly conservative.  Yet, contrary to the five other circuits that have already disagreed with the NLRB interpretation, the 7th Circuit just became the first to step out in support of the Board’s precedent.

In Lewis v. Epic Systems Corp., 2016 WL 3029464 (7th Cir. May 26, 2016), the arbitration agreement between the employer and its employees called for individual arbitration of disputes and waived “the right to participate in or receive money or any other relief from any class, collective, or representative proceeding.”   Nevertheless, a technical writer (of all the unlikely heroes…) sued the employer in federal court asserting violations of labor laws.  When the employer moved to compel individual arbitration, the employee responded that the arbitration agreement violated the NLRA.   The district court agreed with the employee, and the 7th Circuit affirmed.

Knowing that it was creating a circuit split, the unanimous panel supported its result with as much precedent and analysis as it could muster.  The opinion’s logic is this: Section 7 of the NLRA gives employees the right “to engage in other concerted activities,” and filing class actions constitutes “other concerted activities,” by virtue of federal precedent as well as the statute’s legislative history.  Furthermore, the Board’s interpretation of the NLRA is entitled to deference.  Therefore, the Court held, because the employer forced its employees to agree to a contract that stipulated away the employees’ right to class and collective action, it was unenforceable.

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