National Labor Relations Act—Enforceability of Arbitration Clauses

Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, No. 16-285
Ernst & Young LLP v. Morris, No. 16-300
National Labor Relations Board v. Murphy Oil USA, Inc., No. 16-307

The collective bargaining provisions of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) give employees the right to “engage in . . . concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.” In three cases that have been consolidated for review, the Supreme Court will consider whether those NLRA provisions render unenforceable arbitration agreements that require an employer and an employee to arbitrate employment-related disputes on an individual, rather than collective or class, basis, notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s holding that arbitration “as envisioned by” the Federal Arbitration Act calls for individual rather than class-wide arbitration.