In the case of Barrentine et al. v. Arkansas-Best Freight System, Inc., et al., 1980, the U.S Supreme Court held that employees could bring a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) claim to court even after losing in arbitration under their collective bargaining agreement. The plaintiffs were truck drivers who had been denied pay for time spent on pre-trip vehicle inspections and filed grievances through their union's dispute resolution process but lost in arbitration. They then brought suit under FLSA seeking compensation for these duties. The defendants argued that the previous decision from arbitration should prevent them from bringing this lawsuit - a concept known as res judicata or "a matter judged". However, the Supreme Court disagreed stating that while collective bargaining agreements are important tools for labor-management disputes, they cannot override an employee's rights under federal minimum wage laws like FLSA.

The dissenting opinion in the case of Barrentine et al. v. Arkansas-Best Freight System, Inc., et al., argued that the majority's decision undermined collective bargaining agreements and federal labor policy by allowing individual employees to bypass their union representatives and directly sue their employers for violations of Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The dissenters believed that Congress intended for disputes over FLSA provisions incorporated into a collective bargaining agreement to be resolved through arbitration rather than litigation. They contended that this interpretation was consistent with previous court decisions which favored arbitration as an efficient method of dispute resolution. Furthermore, they expressed concern about potential negative impacts on unions' ability to effectively represent their members if individuals could simply opt out of collectively bargained procedures.