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Labor & Employment Attorney Keith Wilkes for SHRM Supreme Court: Baggage Handler Was Exempt from Federal Arbitration Requirement Labor & Employment Attorney Keith Wilkes for SHRM Supreme Court: Baggage Handler Was Exempt from Federal Arbitration Requirement

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Employment Attorney Keith Wilkes for SHRM: SCOTUS: Baggage Handler Was Exempt from Federal Arbitration Requirement

June 2022

SHRM

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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

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Founded in 1966 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Hall Estill is a full-service law firm with clients ranging from Fortune 500 corporations to traditional family businesses, as well as nonprofit organizations, entrepreneurial start-ups and individuals. More than 150 legal professionals work in the firm at offices in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Denver and Northwest Arkansas, assisting a diversified base of local, regional, national and international clients.

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