A provision in an arbitration agreement excluding all claims “involving an employee who is covered by a collective bargaining agreement” should be applied to a supervisory employee who was not subject to any CBA, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has decided.
The plaintiff worked security at the Renaissance Center in Detroit for over three decades. Following his termination, he and his former colleagues filed a class action lawsuit over alleged racial discrimination they faced on the job.
The defendants moved to compel arbitration. A U.S. District Court judge denied that request based on an exclusion clause in the arbitration agreement. Because the plaintiff held a supervisory role, no collective bargaining agreement applied to him. Nevertheless, the judge reasoned, the plaintiff’s claims involved, in the plain sense of the word, allegations of improper conduct committed by lower-level, unionized employees.
The defendants filed an interlocutory appeal to challenge that ruling.
“[The plaintiff’s] claims involve employees subject to a collective bargaining agreement, either as a part or as a necessary part,” Judge Chad A. Readler wrote for a three-judge 6th Circuit panel.
“On this record, we agree with the district court that the unionized security officers are ‘involved’ in [the plaintiff’s] claims. Throughout the complaint, [the plaintiff] asserts that he personally experienced numerous ‘incidents of race discrimination at the Renaissance Center committed by …...
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