The Ninth, Sixth, and Third Circuits all recently issued decisions about whether putative class or collective actions could proceed despite the existence of arbitration clauses.  In two of those decisions, the courts found the arbitration agreements did not allow for class arbitration and therefore dismissed the claims.  In the third, the court found the arbitration agreement was not applicable to the dispute.

In Opalinski v. Robert Half Int’l, 2017 WL 395968 (3d Cir. filed Jan. 30, 2017), the Third Circuit again tackled arbitrability issues in a case that has gotten the runaround for five years (district court, then arbitrator, then district court, then appellate court, back to district court, now back to appellate court).

In another employment dispute, Poublon v. C.H. Robinson Co., 2017 Wl 461099 (9th Cir. Feb. 3, 2017), a class of employees asserted that the employer had misclassified them as exempt from overtime pay and asserted a Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) claim.

 

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