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.”
So after reading this, and please someone correct me, this is good for the workers, yes?
In this case yes, because transportation workers have special protections, but it can just as easily apply to strip transportation workers of rights given to bakery workers in different circumstances.
I think it’s kind of neutral.
For others with so many questions about the why of this case…
This ruling allows the independent contractors that deliver goods for a large bakery (Flowers Foods) to be exempt from arbitration requirements under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), and instead take their pay dispute to court.
Arbitration is death for the little guy’s negotiating power. It costs about $150 to pursue a claim in small claims court, and about $1500 to pursue a claim in arbitration.
For most individual earners in a pay dispute, that arbitration fee is insurmountable and essentially means they’re powerless.
I ran into this problem when I discovered the contract I’d hired a lawyer to draw up for my freelancing business had an arbitration clause. First time I had a client who wouldn’t pay, I was broke and therefore had no recourse.
