Contact: Jed L. Marcus; Bressler, Amery & Ross, P.C. (New Jersey, USA)
We want to alert you to a new decision issued by an Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) on August 21, 2013 in which he held that JP Morgan’s class action waiver provision violated the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). JP Morgan Chase & Co., 02-CA-088471 (Aug. 21, 2013.) Perhaps more importantly, the ALJ ordered the employer to withdraw a motion to dismiss the employees’ wage and hour class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Ryan v. JP Morgan Chase & Co. Please review the case and this email and call me with any questions you might have.
The procedure in the case is relatively straight forward. The former employees filed an unfair labor practice charge against their employer (because it required them to sign on to an arbitration agreement containing a class action waiver) and also brought a wage and hour class action in the Southern District of New York. After the employer filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit because of the arbitration agreement, the employees amended the charge, claiming that the motion to dismiss was also a violation of the NLRA. The ALJ held that JP Morgan’s arbitration agreement with the class action waiver violated the NLRA. In reaching his decision, he relied on D.R. Horton, 357 NLRB No. 184 (2012), a case in which the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) struck down an employer’s unilaterally imposed arbitration agreement. D.R. Horton is on appeal to the Fourth Circuit. Requiring JP Morgan to withdraw its motion to dismiss may be difficult since the district court had already granted its motion and dismissed the former employees’ case. Ryan v. JP Morgan Chase, No. 12-cv-4844, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24628 at *15-16 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 22, 2013.)
