California Attorney General Rob Bonta today joined a multistate coalition in filing an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a lower court decision holding that only workers employed in the transportation industry can be exempt under the transportation-worker exemption to the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). The multistate amicus brief supports the petitioners in Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries Park St., LLC, et al., who are truck drivers delivering baked goods to restaurants and stores for baking conglomerate Flowers Foods. While the FAA requires workers to arbitrate claims against their employer when they have signed an arbitration agreement, transportation workers remain exempt. The lower court, however, ruled that the drivers do not qualify for the exemption because their employer is part of the baking industry, not the transportation industry. In their brief, the attorneys general ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse that ruling because it is inconsistent with precedent that has rejected defining the exemption by industry, would be unworkable as a practical matter, and prevents states from effectively monitoring commerce and ensuring lawful workplace conditions.
“Transportation workers were intended to be exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act. They should not be forced into arbitration that is harmful to their interests,” said Attorney General Bonta. “California is home to more than 1.5 million transportation workers. With our multistate amicus brief, we're standing up for their rights by fighting for workable and predictable legal standard for the FAA exception. California will continue to fight for its transportation workers, and for the rights and dignity of all workers.”
The FAA was passed in 1925 as a response to judicial hostility towards arbitration agreements. However, while Section 2 of the FAA widely compels enforcement of arbitration agreements, until recently, arbitration was only applied to a limited range of commercial disputes. It was not until the 1980s that the U.S. Supreme Court steadily expanded the scope of the FAA. As a result of this expansion, workers have been increasingly forced to sign arbitration agreements as a condition of finding work, leading to the abandonment of claims and less enforcement of workers’ rights. In California alone, employers annually pocketed a staggering $850,816,741 from low-wage workers due to arbitration agreements discouraging the filing of claims.
California is home to over 1.5 million transportation workers. Of these workers, about 312,080 are truck drivers in a variety of industries, and many of these workers are directly related to the movement of goods, even if they do not directly work for a trucking company. For the many California workers in the sector, workable standards safeguard their access to the courts, lessening the probability they will be erroneously diverted to arbitration and abandon their claims.
Attorney General Bonta joins the attorneys general of Illinois, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia.
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