Independent Contractor

Supreme Court to Handle Another Arbitration Dispute: Are Bakery-Product Delivery Drivers Transportation Workers or Bakery Workers?

John C. Lane

And why does it matter? Because if they are transportation workers, their putative class action under the FLSA must proceed in court, not by contracted-for arbitration. But if they are bakery workers, they must submit to arbitration. The Second Circuit held they are not transportation workers and therefore must submit to arbitration. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the workers’ further appeal, in Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries Park St., LLC.

Certainly Section 1 of the Federal Arbitration Act forbids a transportation worker, even an independent contractor, to be compelled to arbitrate a claim against an employer. That was settled by the Court in its 2019 decision in New Prime, Inc. v. Oliveira. The unusual setting in Bissonnette raises the issue for the Court of whether the workers are transportation workers or, perhaps, bakery workers.

The workers entered into distributor agreements with defendant bakery companies. In a putative class action, they alleged they were misclassified as independent contractors rather than employees, in violation of the FLSA and Connecticut law, seeking reclassification and damages. The bakery defendants moved to compel arbitration under a contractual provision that also excluded class or other representative actions. But what was their job?

Under the agreements, plaintiffs purchased their own service territories, identified new customers, developed relationships with existing customers, ordered and delivered products, stocked and replenished products in customers’ locations, and otherwise promoted sales and customer service. Plaintiffs purchased bakery goods from defendants and sold them to the customers at a profit, which they kept.  They increased profits by increasing business. The goods came from outside Connecticut and were transported by the workers to their final destinations in Connecticut, using their own vehicles.

Plaintiffs claimed they were transportation workers, transporting bakery products on the intrastate leg of interstate commerce. In contrast, the bakery companies focused on the business aspect of the work, to say that plaintiffs are not transportation workers because their primary activities are in the bakery industry, not the transportation industry. They are more akin to sales workers or managers responsible for all aspects of a bakery products distribution business. Thus, they argue, the Section 1 exception is no impediment to the application of the full Federal Arbitration Act.

The Connecticut district court agreed with the defendant bakeries, ordering the workers to arbitration. The Second Circuit affirmed. The Supreme Court recently granted certiorari to decide whether these distributors of bakery products are in the bakery industry or the transportation industry. And that determination will decide whether their employment claims will be resolved in court or in arbitration.

May a Trucker and its Drivers Contract Around Section 1 of the Federal Arbitration Act?

John C. Lane

The Supreme Court in New Prime v. Oliveria ruled a truck driver’s employment dispute – even that of an independent contractor – may not be ordered to arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act. FAA § 1 exempts such contracts from the provisions of the Act. But can the parties agree in their arbitration provision to contract around Section 1? The Ninth Circuit says they may not. The story of its August 19th decision in Romero v. Watkins & Shepard Trucking and the Court’s reasoning are worth a look.

Alejandro Romero worked as a truck driver for Watkins from 1997 to 2019, making intrastate deliveries within California of goods that “had once crossed state lines,” facts essential to the Court’s conclusion that he was engaged in interstate commerce for purposes of FAA § 1. His employment contract contained an arbitration agreement calling for arbitration under the FAA and expressly contracting out of the application of Section 1’s exemption. That contract provision is at the center of the Court’s opinion.

In August 2019 Watkins announced it would cease operations and informed Romero and fellow workers that they would be laid off. Romero was terminated effective August 23, 2019. He filed a putative class action against Watkins in state court alleging violations of the California and federal WARN acts, for failing to give sufficient notice of the cessation of business. Watkins removed the case to federal court and moved to compel arbitration. Of interest here, Watkins argued that the exemption was inapplicable because Romero’s work was entirely intrastate.

The district court ruled that because Romero made intrastate deliveries of goods that had previously crossed state lines, he was engaged in interstate commerce, within the meaning of FAA § 1 exemption. The Ninth Circuit affirmed, citing its 2020 decision in Rittman v. Amazon and ruling that parties to an arbitration agreement may not “contract around the FAA’s transportation worker exemption.”

In the end, however, arbitration was ordered in a companion decision, because the arbitration agreement also invoked the law of Nevada in the event the federal act was held inapplicable. Nevada has no transportation-worker exemption similar to FAA § 1. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s order to compel arbitration under Nevada law.