Alaska Employment Law

The 4th Circuit has held that the part of ANCSA that exempts Alaska Native corporations from Title VII claims (43 USC 1626(g)) does not protect ANCSA corporations from Section 1981 claims. Aleman v. Chugach Support Services, Inc., No. 06-1461 (4th Cir. May 3, 2007). The Court thus permitted the plaintiffs to pursue Section 1981 claims of race-based employment discrimination against a subsidiary of Chugach Alaska Corporation. The Court’s ruling creates a conflict with the only other appellate decision on the issue: Wardle v. Ute Indian Tribe, 623 F.2d 670, 673 (10th Cir. 1980).

The Court also held that an employer may enforce a mandatory arbitration clause in a collective bargaining agreement against individual union members who do not speak or read the language in which the CBA is written, so long as the arbitration clause satisfies the “clear and unmistakable” waiver requirement of Wright v. Universal Maritime Serv. Corp., 525 U.S. 70, 80 (1998). The Court suggested that unions have no duty to translate CBAs for their non-English speaking members.