Ex-IBM Software Employee Loses Challenge to Age Bias Arbitration

Two provisions of an International Business Machines Corp. arbitration agreement are enforceable against a former employee who alleges she faced age discrimination, a Manhattan federal court ruled.

The US District Court for the Southern District of New York said that it would be inappropriate for it to award a former employee declaratory judgment on the validity of the arbitration agreement’s timeliness and confidentiality provisions. An arbitrator already settled the dispute, and the former employee didn’t follow the guidelines to vacate its determination, the court said Sept. 23, granting IBM’s motion to dismiss.

Deborah Tavenner worked at IBM as a software ...