Postmates Defeats Drivers’ Appeal to Escape Wage Arbitration

Postmates LLC fought off delivery drivers’ efforts to avoid arbitration of their misclassification allegations after the First Circuit on Tuesday affirmed a decision booting the dispute from federal court.

The drivers argued that they fall under the Federal Arbitration Act’s exemption for transportation workers because the goods they deliver locally originated out of state. But the Postmates drivers, in analogizing their case to one in which Amazon drivers responsible for the final leg of interstate package deliveries were found exempt, “are comparing plums with pomegranates,” the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit said.

Three Boston-area delivery workers ...