Just days ago, the highest court in Massachusetts—the Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”)— decided whether former food delivery drivers for GrubHub could escape their arbitration agreements and bring a wage and hour class action lawsuit in court. In excellent news for employers operating in the intrastate delivery sector, the SJC held that they could not. Archer v. GrubHub, Inc., SJC-13228. 2022 WL 2964639 (July 27, 2022) (“GrubHub II”).
GrubHub II turned on interpretation of § 1 of the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”), which exempts seamen, railroad workers, and “any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce” from forced arbitration pursuant to the FAA. Circuit City Stores, Inc. v. Adams, 532 U.S. 105, 112 (2001) (“Circuit City”). Though this latter language could be interpreted broadly, the Supreme Court has held that it is limited to “transportation workers,” defined as “those workers actually engaged in the movement of goods in interstate commerce.” Id.
Despite the Supreme Court’s clarifications in Circuit City, questions quickly arose across the country about whether and when so-called “last-mile delivery drivers” could qualify as “transportation workers.”
By illustration, imagine two drivers working for the same company and carrying goods from a warehouse in Phoenix, Arizona to a customer in Los Angeles, California. Driver 1 routinely carries the goods from Phoenix to a warehouse in San Diego, and Driver 2 routinely picks up the goods from the...
We're hearing from people who say they're still owed thousands of dollars from CJF America. And for the first time in months, WRAL talked with the founder, Courtney Jordan, directly.