Agreement to arbitrate in form employment documents

The employee in Klein v. Nabors Drilling signed an Employee Acknowledgement Form that agreed to resolve disputes through the Nabors Dispute Resolution Program, describing the Program as “a process that may include mediation and/or arbitration.”  No. 11-30824 (Feb. 26, 2013).  The Fifth Circuit reminded that the basic legal framework asks: (1) is there a valid agreement to arbitrate? and (2) does the dispute fall within the scope of the agreement?  Here, the parties did not dispute that they had a valid agreement, or that Klein’s age discrimination claim was a “dispute” within the meaning of the Program — the novel issue was whether the parties agreed that arbitration was mandatory.  The Court carefully reviewed the Program and found that while it “preserve[d] options for nonbinding dispute resolution before final, binding arbitration,” it clearly stated that it “create[d] an exclusive procedural mechanism for the final resolution of all Disputes” and thus required arbitration of Klein’s claim.