(Reuters) - Are truck drivers who deliver commercial baked goods to stores and restaurants engaged in the bakery business? Or are they in the transportation business?
That distinction may seem like mere semantics, but it’s actually of enormous consequence for delivery workers with wage-and-hour claims. The Federal Arbitration Act has a carve-out for “workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce,” so if the bakery delivery drivers – or, for that matter, delivery drivers for any sort of interstate product – are transportation workers, they can litigate their claims in a class action. But if they are deemed to be in the bakery business, they’re outside of the FAA’s exemption and can be compelled to arbitrate their claims.
On Monday, a divided panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries Park St. LLC that delivery drivers for Wonder Bread baker Flowers Foods Inc and two of its subsidiaries are not transportation workers because, ultimately, they are selling baked goods, not transportation services. (The drivers allege they are owed unpaid or withheld wages and overtime wages.)
According to the majority – Circuit Court Judge Dennis Jacobs and U.S. District Judge Diane Gujarati of Brooklyn, sitting by designation – workers are only exempt from mandatory arbitration if they work for companies that make money from providing transport services.
“Those who work in the bakery industry are not transportation workers, even those who drive...
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