Alaska Employment Law

The Alaska Supreme Court issued three employment or labor law decisions this Friday morning. 

In Gibson v. Ney Frontier Ford, Op. No. 6355, the Court enforced a non-union agreement requiring arbitration of an state overtime claim, after invalidating both a $50,000 threshhold on appellate review (by a second arbitrator), and a provision requiring the employee to share the costs of arbitration.  The Court (per Justice Matthews) engaged in some interesting contract interpretation along the way, including granting the employer’s request to read the contract (which the court characterized as “adhesive”) in the employee’s favor.

In CEA v. Mat-Su Bor. School District,  Op. No. 6353, the Court affirmed an ordering denying arbitration of a subcontracting claim by a union.

And in Keller v. French, Op. No. 6352, the Court held that individual legislators lacked standing to pursue their claim that Gov. Palin violated the Alaska Constitution’s “fair and just treatment” clause when she fired Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan.

AEL will have more on these opinions later.