Southwest’s High Court Case Can Widely Impact Worker Arbitration

Latrice Saxon was a Southwest Airlines Co. ramp supervisor, overseeing and often moving cargo on and off the carrier’s planes, working extra hours to do so, but without overtime pay.

She sued the airline in 2019, alleging it failed to pay her and hundreds of current and former ramp supervisors time-and-a-half earned for their OT work. The Dallas-based carrier countered that its employee was contractually bound to bring the claim in arbitration, rather than in court. While a federal district judge agreed with the airline, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit did not.

Now, the U.S. Supreme ...