Balandran

A service which employs temporary laborers to work for third parties requires all applicants to sign an application agreeing that they are not considered employed until they have been assigned to work on a job. The application also contains an arbitration clause, by which each applicant agrees to arbitrate “any disputes arising out of my employment.” Female applicants brought suit against the service and one of its customers, claiming the service illegally agreed to send only male workers to that customer’s jobsite. Defendants petitioned to compel arbitration, based on the arbitration clause in the service’s application. The trial court denied the petition. We conclude defendants are bound by the restrictive definition of employment in their job application. That definition, by its terms, limited the scope of the arbitration clause and thereby precluded arbitration of plaintiff’s preemployment claims. Since plaintiffs were never employed, the arbitration clause does not apply. We affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Labor Ready, Inc. is a service which provides temporary labor to its customers on an as-needed basis. Labor Ready’s business model works on the premise…