Oracle Stuck With Class Arbitration of Wage Dispute

Oracle America Inc. failed to convince the Ninth Circuit that a lower court improperly compelled arbitration of an employee wage dispute.

The company’s appeal is a “reversal of the employer’s usual role,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said March 21 in an unpublished opinion.

Two employment agreements at issue both delegate questions of arbitrability to the arbitrator, so the lower court properly rejected Oracle’s request to decide which agreement governs, the appeals court said.

Oracle sales employee Marcella Johnson filed a demand for class arbitration asserting California wage claims and federal claims for debt servitude and ...