## Facts

- Ryan Jackson worked for Home Team Pest Defense, Inc. (Home Team) and alleged Home Team had him and other employees working about 50–60 hours per week without overtime pay.
- Rollins, Inc. purchased Home Team and held a meeting for Home Team employees.
- At the meeting, Rollins presented a stack of documents for signature and only briefly described each page before requesting signatures and moving on.
- Employees were not given time to read the documents, ask questions, or receive copies at the meeting.
- Jackson and three other employees stated they were required to sign the documents to keep their jobs.
- The paperwork included an arbitration agreement stating that all disputes arising out of employment with Home Team would be resolved by arbitration.
- The arbitration agreement also provided that the arbitrator could not hear the matter as a class or representative action and included a severability clause for any provision found unenforceable.
- Jackson said he did not understand what he was signing and did not intend to waive his ability to litigate in court or proceed on a collective basis.
- Jackson filed an FLSA suit in federal court seeking unpaid overtime on a collective (class-type) basis.
- Home Team moved to dismiss the action or, alternatively, to compel arbitration on an individual basis.
- Jackson opposed the motion, arguing the arbitration agreement was procured by duress and that the FLSA collective-action mechanism could not be waived.
- The district court referred the motion to a magistrate judge for a report and recommendation, then reviewed objections to the recommendation before ruling.

## Issues

1. Whether the arbitration agreement was unenforceable under applicable contract principles because Jackson signed it under economic duress and without meaningful opportunity to read or ask questions.
2. Whether an employee’s ability to pursue an FLSA collective action is nonwaivable such that a contractual bar on class or representative proceedings cannot be enforced.
3. Whether, given the agreement’s severability clause, the court should compel arbitration of Jackson’s FLSA claims on an individual basis.

## Decision

- The court enforced the arbitration agreement and compelled arbitration of Jackson’s FLSA overtime dispute on an individual basis.
- The court rejected Jackson’s argument that the agreement was void due to duress arising from the circumstances of the meeting and the asserted “sign to keep your job” pressure.
- The court declined to allow Jackson to proceed in court as an FLSA collective action in light of the arbitration agreement requiring bilateral arbitration.
- The court ruled after considering the magistrate judge’s report and recommendation and the parties’ objections, granting Home Team relief to the extent it sought individual arbitration.

## Legal Principles

- A signed arbitration agreement is generally enforced based on objective assent; a party’s later claim that he did not read or understand the document ordinarily does not defeat formation absent a recognized contract defense.
- Under state contract law standards applied in federal court, economic pressure tied to continued employment does not automatically establish duress sufficient to void an arbitration agreement; the pressure must be wrongful in a legal sense, not merely the result of unequal bargaining power.
- The Federal Arbitration Act requires courts to enforce arbitration agreements according to their terms, including terms requiring individual (non-class) proceedings.
- Statutory wage-and-hour claims, including FLSA overtime claims, may be resolved in arbitration when the agreement covers employment-related disputes.
- Where an arbitration agreement contains a class/representative-action bar and also contains a severability clause, the court may still enforce the parties’ agreement to arbitrate at least on an individual basis.

## Conclusion

In *Jackson v. Home Team Pest Defense*, the Middle District of Florida enforced an employment arbitration agreement signed during a post-acquisition meeting and required the employee to arbitrate his FLSA overtime claim individually, rejecting arguments that the agreement was invalid due to duress or that the FLSA collective-action procedure could not be waived by contract.


Jackson v. Home Team Pest Defense, 2013 WL 6051391(2013)