April 16, 2021

Wilson-Davis v. SSP America, Inc. (Mar. 11, 2021, published on Apr. 9, 2021, B306781)

Collective bargaining agreements can require employees to arbitrate their statutory claims against employers. However, to do so, the agreement must clearly and unmistakably waive the employees’ rights to a judicial forum for the specific statutory claims alleged in the employees’ complaints.

In this putative wage-and-hour class action, the appellate court rejected the defendants’ argument that the clear-and-unmistakable standard applies solely to agreements to arbitrate statutory discrimination claims. The court reaffirmed that the standard applies to agreements to arbitrate a variety of statutory claims, including those brought under California’s wage-and-hour laws. The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s denial of the defendants’ motion to compel arbitration because the collective bargaining agreement did not clearly and unmistakably require arbitration of the wage-and-hour claims alleged in the plaintiff’s complaint.