California Brewery Worker Must Arbitrate Background Check Claims

California craft brewery Stone Brewing Co. successfully maneuvered a proposed class action challenging its employment applications and background checks into individual arbitration, after a ruling by a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

The employment application Jesse Dominguez submitted to Stone in 2015 contained a valid and binding arbitration agreement, Judge William Q. Hayes ruled July 2. The agreement was set forth in its own paragraph and Dominguez was required to initial the paragraph to signify that he read and agreed to its terms, Hayes said.

Dominguez argued the agreement was invalid, because ...