Southwest Airlines Worker Must Arbitrate Overtime Action

A Southwest Airlines Co. worker who loads and unloads plane cargo isn’t exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act because she isn’t a transportation worker, the Northern District of Illinois said.

Which workers qualify as transportation workers is a question moving through federal courts across the country, as plaintiffs aim to avoid arbitrating federal employment claims by saying that their work exempts them from the FAA.

Latrice Saxon, a Ramp Supervisor at Midway International Airport, brought a putative collection action for overtime violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the court said. She agreed to individually arbitrate wage claims in her ...