The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently affirmed a district court decision granting an employer's motion to compel arbitration and dismissing, without prejudice, a putative class action brought by a former sales associate seeking unpaid overtime on behalf of current and former California Bloomingdale's employees.  The employee had filed a class action lawsuit asserting overtime claims in state court.  The employer removed the case to federal court and filed a motion to compel arbitration on the basis that she had signed an arbitration agreement shortly after being hired, which precluded her from proceeding to pursue employment-related claims in a collective basis in any forum.  The arbitration agreement stated that the employee agreed to resolve all employment-related disputes through arbitration unless the employee opted out within 30 days.  She failed to do so, and the district court therefore granted the employer's motion to compel and dismissed the lawsuit.

In affirming the lower court decision, the Ninth Circuit reasoned that the arbitration agreement was not rendered unenforceable by federal laws including the Norris-LaGuardia Act and the National Labor Relations Act.  While the employee argued otherwise, she failed to show that Bloomingdale's interfered with, restrained or coerced her in the exercise of her right to file a class action.  She was not required to accept the class action waiver as a condition of employment, but was instead given the option of opting out of the dispute resolution program.   Because she freely decided to arbitrate employment-related claims on an individual basis, she cannot claim that the employer's effort to enforce the agreement violated the Norris-LaGuardia Act or the NLRA.  Johnmohammadi v. Bloomindale's Inc.