Cowabunga, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board, No. 16-10932 (11th Cir. 2018)
Annotate this CaseThe Eleventh Circuit granted Cowabunga's petition for review of the NLRB panel's order concluding that the company violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). In light of Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, 584 U.S. __, 138 S. Ct. 1612 (2018), which held that employer-employee agreements did not violate the Act and must be enforced as written, the court reversed the NLRB panel's ruling that Cowabunga violated the NLRA by maintaining and enforcing an employment agreement requiring that employment disputes be resolved through individualized arbitration. In accordance with the NLRB's request, the court vacated the NLRB panel's grant of summary judgment on the prohibiting unfair labor charges claim and remanded it to the NLRB so that it can apply the new standard set forth in The Boeing Co., 365 N.L.R.B. No. 154 (Dec. 14, 2017) (abandoning the "reasonably construe" standard) and any other relevant law. Therefore, the court denied the NLRB's cross-application for enforcement.
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