Sweeney

No appearance by Respondent.

Miles E. Locker, Chief Counsel, Anne Rosenzweig, Staff Counsel, for Intervenor and Respondent.

BAMATTRE-MANOUKIAN, Acting P.J.

In this appeal we decide whether an employee's claim for unpaid wages should be heard by an arbitrator or by California's Labor Commissioner. The employer and employee agreed to submit all disputes arising from their employment contract to binding arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA," 9 U.S.C., § 1 et seq.). However, California Labor Code section 229 specifically exempts from arbitration claims for unpaid wages. The issue is therefore whether the FAA preempts the state statute. This in turn depends upon whether the parties' employment contract in this case falls within an exclusionary provision contained in the FAA which provides that "nothing herein contained shall apply to contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce." ( 9 U.S.C., § 1 , "section 1.")

Most courts that have interpreted this exclusionary provision in the FAA have construed the stated exceptions narrowly to refer to workers who, like seamen and railroad…