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Speaker 1: Well, now it's time for our daily Bloomberg Lab Brief,

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Speaker 1: exploring legal issues in the news. It's brought to you

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Speaker 1: by American Arbitration Association. Business disputes are inevitable, resolve faster

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Speaker 1: with the American Arbitration Association, the global leader in alternative

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Speaker 1: dispute resolution for over ninety years. More at a d

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Speaker 1: r dot org. Today, Bloomberg Law host Michael Best discusses

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Speaker 1: opening arguments in a Supreme Court case that could enable

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Speaker 1: employers to block class action lawsuits and instead channel disputes

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Speaker 1: into arbitration. He speaks with Mark Rifkin, a partner at

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Speaker 1: wolf Haldenstein. Mark, let's start with what the case is about.

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Speaker 1: There are two statutes here that are kind of in conflict. Well,

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Speaker 1: what what do the What does the court have to decide? Michael,

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Speaker 1: The court is being asked to decide number one if

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Speaker 1: there really is a conflict between the two statutes. That

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Speaker 1: is the Federal Arbitration Act, which requires that arbitration agreements

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Speaker 1: be protected to the same extent as every every other

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Speaker 1: contract on the one hand, and then the National Labor

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Speaker 1: Relations Act, which protect employees rights to uh to collective

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Speaker 1: actions and the effect of the arbitration waiver in all

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Speaker 1: these employment agreements is to prohibit employees from bringing either

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Speaker 1: a class action or a collective action under the Fair

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Speaker 1: Labor Standards Act or the National Labor Relations Act, which

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Speaker 1: the employees say is a substantive right they have under

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Speaker 1: the statute. So, as I understand it, marked the employers

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Speaker 1: are arguing that the arbitration at the Federal Arbitration Act

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Speaker 1: says that basically their arbitration provisions are always enforceable, and

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Speaker 1: these contracts do have arbitration provisions, So how is it

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Speaker 1: that the employee side of this argues around that provision

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Speaker 1: of the law. Well, the employees saying that the f

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Speaker 1: a A, the Federal Arbitration Act, only entitles arbitration agreements

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Speaker 1: to be enforced to the same extent as all other contracts.

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Speaker 1: It used to be historically in this country that arbitration

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Speaker 1: agreements were frowned upon, and the f a A protects

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Speaker 1: arbitration agreements, But that doesn't mean that an unlawful agreement

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Speaker 1: can be enforced in the federal courts. And so the

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Speaker 1: employees say, if this agreement takes away statutory rights that

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Speaker 1: the n l r A, the National Labor Relations Act

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Speaker 1: gives us, then it's an unlawful agreement and it can't

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Speaker 1: be enforced, just like any other unlawful contract could be enforced.

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Speaker 1: And that's Mark Riffkin, a partner at Wolf Helden Stain,

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Speaker 1: speaking with Bloomberg Law host Michael Best. You can listen

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Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Law weekdays at one pm all street time

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Speaker 1: here on Bloomberg Radio. And that's this morning's Bloomberg Lawbrary.

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Speaker 1: If you can find more legal news at Bloomberg Law

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Speaker 1: dot com and Bloomberg b and a dot com. Attorneys

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Speaker 1: will find exceptional legal research and business development tools there

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Speaker 1: as well. Visit Bloomberg Law dot com and Bloomberg b

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Speaker 1: and a dot com for more information.