High Court: Drivers Not Legally Tied to Clients’ Fields

Truck drivers are not tethered to their client’s industries when it comes to legal disputes, according to the Supreme Court.

In a unanimous decision issued earlier this month, the court ruled that individuals who deliver for a baked goods manufacturer cannot be classified as bakery workers for arbitration purposes.

The case concerns Neal Bissonnette and Tyler Wojnarowski, who deliver for baking giant Flowers Foods in parts of Connecticut. As part of the deal, the pair signed a franchising agreement with Flowers Foods that requires any disputes to be resolved under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA).

When the pair argued in 2019 that Flowers was underpaying them, they filed a class action suit against the company. Flowers contended that the case should be dismissed in favor of FAA arbitration. That interpretation was embraced at the district level, with a court concluding that Bissonnette and Wojnarowski don’t qualify for an FAA exemption. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit also backed Flowers, finding that the duo “are in the bakery industry.”

Writing for the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Roberts noted that the FAA contains a clause specifying that “nothing herein contained shall apply to contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.” Using a recent high court ruling, the justices found that “a transportation worker does not need to work in the transportation industry to fall within the exemption from the Federal Arbitration Act.”

The court remanded the case to the lower courts to resolve, thereby opening the door for Bissonnette and Wojnarowski to pursue their suit against Flowers.