The Supreme Court made an important exception last week to its pro-employer position of compelling arbitration when it decided the case of New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira. Mr. Oliveira, a long-haul truck driver, had signed an arbitration agreement with his employer, New Prime Inc. When Mr. Oliveira tried to get his unpaid wages and expenses, New Prime invoked the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), to force Oliveira to arbitrate his claim. Mr. Oliveira argued that the FAA does not apply to “contracts of employment” of transportation workers. New Prime, however, claimed that Mr. Oliveira was an independent contractor and that the language in the FAA did not apply to his claims. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court held that “contract of…Read More
On February 4, 2019, the California Court of Appeal held, in Ward v. Tilly’s, Inc. , that an employee scheduled for an on-call shift may be entitled to certain wages for that shift even without physically reporting to work. At issue in the case was the employer’s policy requiring workers who were scheduled for on-call shifts to call their employer two hours prior to the start of their shift to get instructions regarding whether or not they needed to physically report to work. The Court looked at the California’s Industrial Welfare Commission (“IWC”) wage orders, which require employers to pay employees “reporting time pay” for each workday “an employee is required to report for work and does report, but is not put to…Read More