Flowers Foods Loses Bid to Force Driver to Arbitrate Wage Claims

Flowers Foods Inc. and two subsidiaries must face wage-and-hour allegations in court after a federal judge ruled the suing distributor falls under an arbitration exemption for transportation workers.

Distributor Angelo Brock established that he belongs to a class of workers who load, unload, and deliver products in interstate commerce, making him an exempt transportation worker under the Federal Arbitration Act and dooming Flowers Foods’ bid to send the suit to private dispute resolution, the US District Court for the District of Colorado said.

The act and the US Supreme Court’s Southwest Airlines Co. v. Saxon decision “establish a clear ...