Epic Systems wins dispute over employment agreement

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The U.S. Supreme Court has handed down a decision finding that employment agreements may contain clauses that prevent employees from banding together to sue their employer.

Monday’s decision, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, resolves three cases before the court, one of which originates from Wisconsin. That case involved Jacob Lewis, a former technical writer who sued medical-software company Verona-based Epic Systems Inc., alleging it had shorted him on his wages.

Epic contended that because Lewis and his colleagues had signed in early 2014 documents waiving their right to collectively sue Epic, they couldn’t take their employment dispute to court as a group. Those documents were later added to paperwork all new hires are expected to complete.

The decision reverses favorable rulings handed down in Lewis’ case by District Court Judge Barbara Crabb and the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Among the arguments the nation’s highest court rejected was Lewis’ contention that because the dispute involved employment, the National Labor Relations Act rendered the class-action waivers unenforceable. Lewis’ lawyers pointed to the NLRA’s Section 7, which prohibits employers from preventing employees from engaging in “concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.”

However, the justices were not persuaded and sided with Epic and the other employers in the three cases.

The court’s 5-4 decision Monday is in line with its recent decisions upholding arbitration agreements and class-action waivers in consumer contracts. Observers had predicted that the justices would side with employers yet again, immunizing firms from expensive litigation and leaving employees to fend for themselves in employment disputes. Follow @erikastrebel