Pepperidge Farm Sued by Delivery Worker Over Pay, Classification

Pepperidge Farm Inc. was hit Thursday with a federal lawsuit alleging it violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and Virginia wage law by misclassifying some delivery workers as independent contractors rather than employees.

The proposed class and collective action was brought by Chad Hill, who delivers and stocks Pepperidge Farm products at retailers in the Richmond, Va., area under a “consignment agreement.”

Hill seeks to represent other “consignees” performing this work under the same agreements in a state-law class and nationwide FLSA collective.

Pepperidge Farm classified the workers as contractors and paid them commissions based on the percentage of the ...