SCOTUS will decide one more employment arbitration case

On September 28, the US Supreme Court announced that it will take up Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries [Briefs].

This is another inquiry into the meaning of the Federal Arbitration Act's exemption of "contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce."

Neal Bissonnette and others are commercial truck drivers. They haul goods for Flowers Foods. Flowers ships its products across state lines from its manufacturing plants to retail stores. The drivers in this case were responsible for the last leg of that journey—from Flowers’ regional warehouse to stores throughout Connecticut.

The drivers' suit claims that Flowers misclassified them as independent contractors and violated state and federal wage laws.

The district court granted Flowers' motion to compel arbitration, based on an arbitration clause in its contract with the drivers. The 2nd Circuit (2-1) affirmed on the ground that the drivers are not exempt from the FAA "because they are in the bakery industry, not a transportation industry."

The drivers argue that nothing in the FAA specifies that the exemption applies only to workers who are in the transportation industry, and that it is enough that they are workers "engaged in … interstate commerce."

Flowers argues that the exemption applies only to those who are in the transportation industry – similar to "seamen" and "railroad employees."

Flowers also argues that the drivers "are not engaged in interstate commerce for purposes of § 1 because they work exclusively intrastate. [They] own geographically defined territories, and their companies market, sell, and distribute Flowers products only within the borders of Connecticut.”

We expect oral arguments and a decision in 2024.