News & Insights
Employment Attorney Keith Wilkes for SHRM: SCOTUS: Baggage Handler Was Exempt from Federal Arbitration Requirement
June 2022
SHRM
A baggage-handling manager was exempt under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) from arbitrating her overtime claims against Southwest Airlines, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled June 6.
When the employee came to believe that Southwest was failing to pay her and other ramp supervisors proper overtime wages, she brought a class action against Southwest under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Southwest sought to enforce its arbitration agreement with the worker under the FAA.
"Because this dispute had the potential to declare all airline, trucking and busing industry employees to be transportation workers under the exemption from the FAA, the Saxon opinion is a big win for those industries as a whole," said Keith Wilkes, an attorney with Hall Estill in Tulsa, Okla. READ MORE HERE
