On September 1, 2026, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled that a lower court should not have denied a motion to compel arbitration in a class-action brought by airline employees who alleged a series of violations of Colorado state wage laws.
Quick Hits
In Joyner v. Frontier Airlines, the Tenth Circuit reversed a district court’s ruling that customer service agents at a Denver airport were transportation workers exempt from federal arbitration law.
The Tenth Circuit found the lower court had improperly relied on the work the named plaintiffs had actually performed, rather than what a typical class member did.
The case hinged on whether the employees regularly handled passengers’ bags and thus took part in interstate commerce.
Under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), mandatory arbitration agreements in employment contracts are enforceable, but the statute exempts from its coverage contracts of transportation workers involved in moving goods across state or… Read the complete article here...
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