Omar

Ralphs Grocery Company and Mark Strauch appeal the trial court’s denial of their motion to compel arbitration, which was filed as part of a motion for summary judgment. Appellants contend the trial court erred in failing to determine the two “gateway” issues of arbitrability: (1) whether there is an enforceable agreement to arbitrate, and (2) whether the agreement covers the disputes at issue. We agree and reverse, and remand the matter to the trial court for a determination of these issues. We also determine that in this case the issue of whether appellants waived the right to compel arbitration must be decided in the first instance by an arbitrator and not the court.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Respondent Adel Omar was hired by Ralphs’s predecessor, Hughes Markets, in 1986. In 1990 he was promoted to manager of operations at the Ralphs store on West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, a position he held for the next 11 years. On September 14, 2001, Ralphs’s district manager, Scott Drew, signed a declaration stating that on that day he delivered a copy of Ralphs’s Mediation and Binding Arbitration Policy (the arbitration agreement) to respondent, along with an…