Online Job Application Arbitration Pact Gets 4th Cir. Scrutiny

A South Carolina health-care provider faced a somewhat skeptical Fourth Circuit Tuesday in arguing that a nurse must arbitrate over alleged bias relating to a job she applied for in 2020, in part because she agreed to arbitration when she applied for work four years earlier.

At issue is the effect of an employer’s use of an online system that pre-populates with a check-mark a new job application based on a worker’s having clicked “I Accept” to a promise to arbitrate when previously applying to work for the employer. Workers who return to its Georgetown Memorial Hospital job application portal ...