On May 21, 2018, the United States Supreme Court, in a long-awaited decision, held that employment arbitration agreements with class action waivers requiring individual arbitration are enforceable under the Federal Arbitration Act (the “FAA”), notwithstanding Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (the “NLRA”), which protects employees’ rights to engage in concerted activities. In so ruling, the Court’s 5-4 decision, issued in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, which had been consolidated with two other cases, Ernst & Young, LLP v. Morris and NLRB v. Murphy Oil USA, Inc., resolved the different approaches federal courts had taken on this issue for years. Although the majority opinion acknowledged that the efficacy of class action waivers in arbitration agreements is, “[a]s a matter of policy[,]” debatable, it ruled that “as a matter of law the answer is clear”—federal courts must enforce arbitration agreements in accordance with their terms, including those that require individualized arbitration.

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