Flowers Foods Driver Arbitration Exemption Upheld on Appeal (1)

Flowers Foods Inc. and two subsidiaries must face delivery drivers’ wage complaints in court after the First Circuit on Friday affirmed a lower court ruling allowing the workers to skip arbitration.

Margarito Canales and Benjamin Bardzik, who signed agreements to arbitrate wage-related claims against the bakery chain, fall under a Federal Arbitration Act exemption because they frequently performed transportation work, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit said.

Flowers Foods and its subsidiaries waived some of their arguments on appeal, and the arguments they preserved “fail under recent First Circuit and Supreme Court precedent,” Judge William J. ...