The court in Mason v. Praxair, Inc., No. 3:06CV-218-R, 2006 U.S.Dist. LEXIS 58003 (W.D.Ky. Aug. 16, 2006) dismissed an employee claim that her termination during medical leave violated the FMLA pursuant to an arbitration clause contained in her application for employment. The arbitration clause broadly provided:
I agree to pursue any dispute in connection with any future separation from employment by the Company promptly through binding arbitration pursuant to the rules of the American Arbitration Association before an arbitrator selected by the Company and me by striking from no more than three panels of arbitrators obtained from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, or through such equivalent alternative dispute resolution procedure as the Company may designate, except that to the extent permitted by law, this will be my sole and exclusive remedy for such dispute.
In support of dismissal the court initially recognized the strong federal policy favoring enforcement of arbitration agreements, and that any doubts concerning the scope of arbitrable issues should be resolved in favor of arbitration. In determining whether a party has agreed to arbitrate a particular issue, the court applies ordinary contract principles. Here, the court rejected the employee’s argument that the arbitration clause did not cover the FMLA because it did not specifically mention statutory claims. The court found that “any dispute in connection with any future separation” language was broad enough to include FMLA claims.
Comment: Courts have generally enforced agreements to arbitrate FMLA claims even where, as here, the arbitration language does not specifically mention the FMLA. Applying general contract principles, if the arbitration agreement language is broad enough to encompass the FMLA claims courts will frequently dismiss civil suits where the employee has not submitted the claim to arbitration.
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