A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision helps define the legal status of transportation workers at companies that are not primarily involved in transportation. The post Supreme Court: Drivers hauling baked goods are in transportation, not baking appeared first on FreightWaves.

But the Supreme Court’s April 12 ruling that they are in the transportation business opens the door for them to take the dispute to court.

That’s because the FAA — in its very first section — exempts from its mandate several types of workers, such as railroad employees and “any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.”

  • ShepherdPieEnglish
    6·
    2 months ago

    Maybe people don’t know the context here.

    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.

    https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/trucker-or-baker-appeals-court-splits-over-supreme-court-arbitration-precedent-2022-09-27/

    Edit: I didn’t notice this was “not the onion” so I can see why people may be downvoting. It definitely does seem like an Oniony headline to me as it’s obvious delivery drivers aren’t “baking.”