Kentucky employers may need to reconsider how they implement
employee arbitration agreements after a Supreme Court of Kentucky
decision issued late last month.
In a unanimous opinion rendered September 27, 2018, the Court
held in Northern Kentucky Area Development District v. Danielle
Snyder, No. 2017-SC-000277-DG, that Kentucky employers may not
require employees to sign arbitration agreements as a condition of
their new or continued employment. The decision makes Kentucky the
first state in the nation to prohibit employers' use of
mandatory arbitration agreements as a condition of employment.
The Case
The decision arose from a lawsuit brought against the Northern
Kentucky Area Development District (the "District"), a
state agency, by one of its former employees. As a condition of her
employment, the employee had been required to a sign a binding
arbitration agreement in which she agreed to submit any
employment-related disputes with the District to
