|
|
|
| Issue: |
Your organization announced its new dispute resolution policy (Policy) in a company-wide e-mail sent by the president. Although the text of the Policy was not part of the e-mail, the e-mail contained links to the Policy and the Policy was also posted on the company intranet. The Policy provided that all employment-related disputes were subject to binding arbitration. After the Policy was announced, an employee was terminated for persistent absenteeism and tardiness. He sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act, alleging that his chronic absenteeism was caused by sleep apnea, which the employer failed to reasonably accommodate. Is the employee subject to the mandatory arbitration agreement? |
 |
|
|
Answer: |
No, according to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. The mass e-mail failed to provide appropriate notice of the contractual nature of the new arbitration agreement. Although e-mails were the preferred method of communication at the company, the court found it important that the company never previously used e-mail or intranet postings to introduce a contractual term that was to become a condition of continued employment. Instead, important changes to the employment relationship were communicated in conventional writings that required a signature on a piece of paper and then were placed in a personnel file.
The court also noted that while the Policy itself was written in clear, contractual language, the e-mail announcement “undersold the significance of the Policy.” Also important, the court found, was the fact that the employer did not require employees to respond to the e-mail. Requiring an affirmative response, the court stated, would have alerted employees to the Policy’s contractual nature. As a result, the employee could not be compelled to arbitrate his disability claim.
Cite: Campbell v General Dynamics Gov’t Sys Corp (1stCir 2005) 151 LC ¶60,002. |
|
|
