Kluwer: Arbitrability of Labor Disputes: Uruguay’s Supreme Court Reaffirms Arbitral Jurisdiction Over Labor Matters

The arbitrability of labor disputes has long been met with skepticism in many civil law jurisdictions. Employment law is traditionally conceived as a body of mandatory, public-order norms aimed at protecting the weaker party in an inherently asymmetrical relationship. For that reason, labor disputes have often been reserved to specialized labor courts, and arbitration clauses in employment contracts have been challenged and portrayed as incompatible with effective access to justice and with the protective function of labor law.