ST. LOUIS – A federal court has dismissed a woman's sex discrimination case against her former employer in favor of arbitration.
On May 17, U.S. District Judge Henry Edward Autrey Charter of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri in the Eastern Division granted Charter Communication's motion to dismiss and compel arbitration or in the alternative motion to stay proceedings pending arbitration.
Plaintiff Candace Osborne sued Charter last October with claims that she was a victim of sex discrimination when she was fired from the company. Charter filed an affidavit from its director of human resource technology, Tammie Knapper, who spoke on Solution Channel, which is described as “Charter’s employment-based legal dispute resolution program,” in the ruling.
The program required that any legal disputes would be resolved through arbitration. Knapper confirmed that while Osborne and the other employees had the option to do so, Osborne never opted out of the program and subsequently agreed to arbitration should any legal disagreements arise.
Osborne agreed with Knapper’s claims, but alleged that she wasn’t given an employee handbook after being fired, using that challenge as an argument for the court not to compel arbitration.
The court, on the other hand, said Charter sufficiently provided evidence that arbitration is proper.
“Defendant has produced the employment arbitration to which plaintiff accepted through not opting out,” Autrey wrote. “Plaintiff does not challenge the validity of the agreement. The scope of that agreement includes claims by plaintiff against defendant unlawful discrimination or harassment including such claims based on sex.”
Ultimately, Autrey determined that, because of the agreement, arbitration is the avenue that should be used to argue the case and ultimately dismissed it, compelling it to arbitration.
“Because it is clear the entire controversy between the parties is subject to, and must resolved by, arbitration, the court will dismiss this action, without prejudice,” Autrey wrote.