CBAs Must Specifically State Intent To Arbitrate Statutory Rights

Seyfarth Synopsis:   The Court of Appeal has held that unless a collective bargaining agreement includes an explicitly stated, clear and unmistakable, intent to waive the right to a judicial forum for statutory causes of action, arbitration of those statutory claims will not be compelled. Vasserman v. Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital. The CBA in Vasserman did not waive the right to a judicial forum, because the Grievance and Arbitration section of the CBA failed to specify the Labor Code provisions that would have to be arbitrated. 

The Facts

Tanya Vasserman, a registered nurse, worked for Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, under a collective bargaining agreement ("CBA") between the Hospital and the California Nurses Association. The CBA's "Grievance and Arbitration Section" provided for grievances culminating in arbitration, and defined a grievance as any dispute "arising out of the interpretation or application of a specific Article and Section of this