The recent decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Quilloin v. Tenet Healthsystem, No. 11-1393, 2012 U.S. App. 5353 (3d Cir. March 14, 2012), comes at the intersection of the proliferation of wage-and-hour claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the continued use of arbitration agreements for individual employees. That is, the Third Circuit addressed whether the arbitration agreement signed by the plaintiff required her (as class representative) to arbitrate the potential FLSA class action.
Arbitration Agreement Signed
According to the opinion, Janice Quilloin, a registered nurse with an associate’s degree, began working at Hahnemann University Hospital (owned by Tenet) in October 2006. She resigned in February 2008 to take another job but returned to Hahnemann in December 2008. Around the time she commenced both terms of employment, Quilloin signed an “Employee Acknowledgment” form, acknowledging receipt of Tenet’s mandatory arbitration process, called the “Fair Treatment Process.” The FTP provided, in part, that “final and binding arbitration will be the sole and exclusive remedy for any … claim or dispute against Tenet (related in any way to my employment).”
