Waks Co-Authors Article Arguing That Labor Arbitration of Statutory Claims Deserves U.S. Supreme Court Backing

Jay Waks (Litigation Partner/Chair, Employment & Labor) and Professor David Lipsky of Cornell University have authored an article entitled “Penn Plaza v. Pyett" in the Labor Law section of The National Law Journal, January 12, 2009. In commenting on Penn Plaza v. Pyett, a case the United States Supreme Court will decide in its current term, Waks and Lipsky argue that the Supreme Court should uphold union-negotiated arbitration agreements and court waivers, if clear and unmistakable in their coverage of statutory claims of employment discrimination. They explain that arbitration under collective bargaining agreements is as hospitable to statutory claims as is arbitration of statutory claims in the non-union workplace (first upheld by the Court in 1990) and lay out the rationale for the Supreme Court to reverse decisions of the Second Circuit and five other federal circuits that are critical of labor arbitration.