Arbitration Avoidance, Wage Collective Creation on 2026 Horizon

The US Supreme Court is poised to provide more clarity on when some workers can avoid arbitration as different approaches to collective status from the circuits add to confusion elsewhere in the wage-and-hour world.

Lawyers are “always looking to get a better understanding of what is going to make an arbitration agreement most enforceable,” said Hogan Lovells partner Michelle Roberts Gonzales, who defends employers in wage suits. “Whenever the Supreme Court takes up an arbitration case, everybody pays pretty close attention.”

The justices recently agreed to consider whether workers who make local deliveries are truly involved in interstate transportation. ...