Emailed click box did not suffice to show assent to employer's arbitration agreement

We live in a digital age. What must an employer do to obtain digital agreement to its arbitration policy? Here is one case that gives one answer.

The New Jersey Appellate Division reversed the trial court's order compelling arbitration of a claim of religion discrimination. The court applied Leodori v. CIGNA Corp., 175 N.J. 293, 303 (2003) to find that there had not been an "explicit, affirmative agreement that unmistakably reflects the employee's assent." Skuse v. Pfizer (New Jersey Ct App 01/16/2018) [PDF].

The employer emailed to its workforce what it called a "training module" which described the company's mandatory arbitration policy. There was a link to the full text of the policy. In the module, employees simply were asked to "acknowledge" it with the click of an electronic button. The module declared that if an employee did not click the acknowledgement, but continued to work for the company for sixty or more days, the employee would be "deemed" to be bound by the arbitration policy.

The court held that the employee "never expressed in written or electronic form her explicit and unmistakable voluntary agreement to forego the court system and submit her discrimination claims against her former employer and its officials to binding arbitration." She clicked a box to indicate that she acknowledged receipt of the arbitration agreement, but nothing indicated she agreed to it. Compliance with the Leodori case requires that the click box contain the word "agree" or "agreement."

The court rejected the employer's argument that the employee was "deemed" to be bound by the arbitration policy because she continued to work for more than sixty days after receiving the arbitration agreement. "Such a proclamation of 'consent by default' is legally insufficient, however, to satisfy the requirements of explicit and unmistakable employee assent prescribed by Leodori."