A federal judge on Jan. 25 ruled Epic's policy mandating employees bring wage disputes through individual arbitration is valid and does not violate state and federal law, Kenosha News reports.
The ruling ended a nearly four-year case that the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision on last year. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Epic that employees can be forced to use arbitration — and not the courts — to settle disputes about wages and overtime.
The case involved Jacob Lewis, a former technical writer at Epic, who alleged the Verona, Wis.-based EHR vendor violated federal and state law by neglecting to pay him and other technical writers overtime pay. However, Epic employees waive the right to participate in any class, collective or representative proceeding when they signed their employment agreements, which stated wages and working hours can only be discussed through individual arbitration.
On behalf of the workers, lawyers argued that the Supreme Court's ruling was "unconscionable" under Wisconsin state law because Epic "exploited its superior bargaining power by presenting the arbitration agreement on a take-it-or-leave-it basis," U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Crabb wrote in the ruling, according to Kenosha News.
Ms. Crabb noted that Epic gave employees the option to discuss wage disputes with the company directly. She added that the employees could have rejected the terms of the arbitration agreement upon accepting the job, and sought employment elsewhere. Therefore, Ms. Crabb sided with Epic on the case.
One of the lawyers representing the Epic workers told Kenosha News there are no plans to continue to challenge Epic's arbitration agreement in court.