Wright v Universal Maritime Service Corp.: The Supreme Court goes back to arbitration basics

The United States Supreme Court recently issued its decision in a Wright v. Universal Maritime Service Corporation. The Court held that an employee is not required to arbitrate his statutory, disability discrimination claim u nder a general and broad arbitration provision in a collective bargaining a greement, and instead the employee may proceed directly to court. The Court ruled that an obligation to arbitrate statutory discrimination claims cann ot be presumed. A labor agreement must be specific in its intent that such claims be arbitrated and the union's waiver of an individual's statutory ri ght to a judicial forum for a discrimination claim must be "clear and unmis takable." As a result, most arbitration and non-discrimination provisions c ommonly found in labor agreements likely will not be sufficiently specific to require the mandatory arbitration of statutory discrimination claims. St ill unresolved by the Court is the question of whether a union has the auth ority to waive an individual's statutory right to proceed to court, which i s the next threshold issue that must be resolved.