The Right to Arbitrate: Arbitration Agreements Between Employer and Employee and Continued Employmen

The California Court of Appeal - Second District - ruled yesterday that when a worker continues her employment after notification that an agreement to arbitration is a condition of continued employment, that employee has impliedly consented to the arbitration agreement. The Court further ruled that an employer can unilaterally change the terms of an at-will worker's employment agreement as long as it provides notice of the change, and the alteration does not violate a statute or breach an implied or expressed contractual agreement. An adhesive agreement to arbitrate can still be enforced in the absence of surprise or sharp practices demonstrating substantive unconscionability. (See, Diaz v. Sohnen Enterprises - filed April 10, 2019, Second District, Div. Seven - 2019 S.O.S. 1722 .)