The SCOTUS Flowers Foods Decision is a Win for Workers Fighting Forced Arbitration

The Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of a delivery driver named Angelo Brock, who works for Flowers Foods, the company that makes Wonder Bread and Krimpets. Brock's job is to pick up baked goods from a warehouse in Colorado and deliver them to stores around Denver. He never leaves the state. Flowers Foods had required him to sign an arbitration agreement, which is a contract that forces workers to settle disputes privately instead of going to court. Brock argued he shouldn’t be bound by that agreement, and the Supreme Court agreed with him.

The key law at the center of this case is the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), which generally makes arbitration agreements legally enforceable. However, it has an exception for workers involved in interstate commerce, meaning the movement of goods between states. Flowers Foods argued that because Brock never crossed state lines or even worked alongside anyone who did, he wasn’t really part of interstate commerce. The Court rejected that argument, ruling that so long as a worker plays any role in moving goods that are traveling from one state to another, even just the final local leg of that journey, they count as being involved in interstate commerce and therefore cannot be forced into arbitration.

This decision is a big win for Brock and delivery drivers across the country. Under this decision, drivers like Amazon’s “last mile” drivers who drop off packages locally, could have their day in court preserved. Notably, this is the fourth time in seven years that the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of workers when addressing the reach of the FAA. However, employers may still look for other legal arguments to enforce arbitration agreements in the future. But alternative legal arguments aside, the court was clear: the bottom line is that the interstate exemption to the FAA is not limited by a requirement of crossing state lines or interacting with vehicles that do.

For more information about individual employment arbitration agreements, please contact your labor law counsel. 

By Isadora Stern, WRR Law Clerk