Worker Who Won FAA Carve-Out Argument Still Arbitration-Bound

A California warehouse employee’s job duties fall within a federal arbitration law carveout for transportation workers, but a similar state law means he still might have to arbitrate his wage claims, the Ninth Circuit said.

The worker’s job description meets the benchmarks set out in a recent US Supreme Court case on the Federal Arbitration Act exemption, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously said Tuesday. But California law provides a separate avenue to shunt his claims to arbitration, the court said in a second, unpublished opinion that divided the three-judge panel.

Staffing firm Randstad Inhouse Services ...