Flowers Foods Drivers Lose Appeal Over Arbitration in Wage Suit

A group of drivers who deliver baked goods for Flowers Foods Inc. in Connecticut don’t qualify for the Federal Arbitration Act’s exemption for transportation workers because they “work in the bakery industry,” a divided Second Circuit ruled Thursday.

As such, the drivers must arbitrate their claims that they’re misclassified as independent contractors, rather than employees, the appeals court said in affirming the District of Connecticut’s ruling.

Federal courts have reached different conclusions about which workers fall into this category, and the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to weigh in on the issue soon. Many courts have focused on the interstate ...