The Ninth Circuit recently issued an opinion that signals some movement in the direction away from enforcing employment-related arbitration agreements.
se No. 2:21-cv-00204-BJR, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s order denying Amazon’s motion to compel arbitration in a case brought by Amazon Flex delivery drivers who made last-leg deliveries of goods shipped from other states or countries to consumers, as well as tip-eligible deliveries of food, groceries, and packages stored locally. In the complaint, the plaintiffs alleged that Amazon violated state laws by failing to honor its promise that workers would receive 100% of the tips that customers added for deliveries of local goods.
Amazon argued that the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Rittmann v. Amazon.com was no longer good law in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Southwest Airlines Co. v. Saxon. In Rittmann, the Ninth Circuit held that Amazon Flex delivery drivers—like the plaintiffs in Miller—were exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) because they were workers engaged in interstate commerce since they delivered goods shipped from other states or countries to their final destination. Amazon argued Rittmann was no longer good law because in Saxon, the Supreme Court explained that courts must look at the workers’ own activities rather than the activities of the business for which they worked when determining whether an employee belongs to a class of workers...
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