{"id":925,"date":"2023-11-03T09:58:37","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T13:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/?p=925"},"modified":"2023-11-03T09:58:37","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T13:58:37","slug":"the-class-action-weekly-wire-episode-37-delivery-drivers-misclassification-suit-stayed-pending-scotus-arbitration-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/2023\/11\/03\/the-class-action-weekly-wire-episode-37-delivery-drivers-misclassification-suit-stayed-pending-scotus-arbitration-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"The Class Action Weekly Wire \u2013 Episode 37: Delivery Drivers\u2019 Misclassification Suit Stayed Pending SCOTUS Arbitration Ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/11\/37-cover.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-926\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/11\/37-cover.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/11\/37-cover.png 1600w, https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/11\/37-cover-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/11\/37-cover-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/11\/37-cover-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/11\/37-cover-1536x864.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Duane Morris Takeaway:<\/em><\/strong> This week&#8217;s episode of the Class Action Weekly Wire features Duane Morris partner Jennifer Riley and associate Nathan Norimoto with their discussion of recent developments in a Massachusetts wage &amp; hour suit brought by delivery drivers alleging independent contractor misclassification.<\/p>\n<p>Check out today\u2019s episode and subscribe to our show from your preferred podcast platform: <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/2HZP212kEycOPXPY7Qppzr\">Spotify<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/music.amazon.com\/podcasts\/a23249e0-d394-470c-ba27-b4d87dcf4381\/the-class-action-weekly-wire\">Amazon Music<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-class-action-weekly-wire\/id1709589577\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9tZWRpYS5yc3MuY29tL2RtY2xhc3NhY3Rpb24vZmVlZC54bWw%3D\">Google Podcasts<\/a>, the Samsung Podcasts app, <a href=\"https:\/\/podcastindex.org\/podcast\/6626090\">Podcast Index<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/The-Class-Action-Weekly-Wire-p3882927\/\">Tune In<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.listennotes.com\/podcasts\/the-class-action-weekly-wire-duane-morris-uQEYrwG7MOU\/\">Listen Notes<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iheart.com\/podcast\/269-the-class-action-weekly-wi-124460701\/\">iHeartRadio<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.deezer.com\/us\/show\/1000307221\">Deezer<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@DMClassAction\">YouTube<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/rss.com\/podcasts\/dmclassaction\/\">our RSS feed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Episode 37: Delivery Drivers\u2019 Misclassification Suit Stayed Pending SCOTUS Arbitration Ruling\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qSA-hbafm5c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Episode Transcript<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Jennifer Riley: <\/strong>Hello, podcast listeners, welcome to this week&#8217;s installment of the Class Action Weekly Wire. I&#8217;m Jennifer Riley, partner at Duane Morris, and joining me today is Nathan Norimoto, associate in our San Francisco office. Welcome, Nathan.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nathan Norimoto:<\/strong> Thanks, Jen. It&#8217;s great to be here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jen:<\/strong> So today we&#8217;re discussing one of the top areas of focus by the plaintiffs\u2019 class action bar \u2013 wage &amp; hour litigation \u2013 and in particular, we&#8217;re going to talk about a misclassification case out of Massachusetts involving the arbitration defense. Nathan, can you start by giving our listeners some background on the case?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nathan:<\/strong> Absolutely. So, misclassification is a popular theory alleged in wage &amp; hour lawsuits often alleging exempt versus non-exempt or independent contractor versus employee claims. This particular case involves independent contractor misclassification claims brought under the Massachusetts Wage Act and the Massachusetts Minimum Fair Wage Law. The case at issue is <em>Canales, et al. v. Flowers Foods, Inc., et al<\/em>., currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.<\/p>\n<p>Delivery drivers had filed suit in 2021, alleging that Flowers Foods and its subsidiaries, LePage Bakeries and CK Sales Co., misclassified them as independent contractors, and sought wages and overtime pay. After the district court denied the defendants\u2019 attempts to make the workers arbitrate under the Federal Arbitration Act, or FAA, the companies appealed to the First Circuit, and the appeals court back to the district court\u2019s judgment \u2013 finding that precedent from the First Circuit and the Supreme Court lays out the exemption from arbitration under the FAA. Just last month, after the First Circuit issued its decision, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss or compel arbitration under the Massachusetts Uniform Arbitration Act.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jen:<\/strong> Thanks for that background, Nathan. What was the result of the Court&#8217;s latest ruling?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nathan:<\/strong> So earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs denied the defendants\u2019 motion to dismiss or compel arbitration under the Massachusetts Uniform Arbitration Act. The judge had found that defendants delayed in filing a motion to compel arbitration, which was inconsistent with the purpose of arbitration, citing a Massachusetts district court decision called <em>Oliveira v. New Prime, Inc<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>However, in that same decision, Judge Burroughs did separately grant the companies\u2019 request to stay the case while the United States Supreme Court weighs a decision in <em>Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries<\/em>. In that Supreme Court case, the Second Circuit had argued that the delivery drivers were not exempt from arbitration under the FAA because they are employees in the bakery industry. Under Section 1 of the FAA, there&#8217;s an arbitration exemption for \u201ccontracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jen:<\/strong> Thanks so much, Nathan, for that rundown on this ongoing litigation and thank you listeners for joining us on the podcast today. We&#8217;ll be sure to keep you up-to-date on developments on the arbitration defense, the transportation worker exemption, and other issues. That wraps up another episode of the Class Action Weekly Wire.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nathan:<\/strong> Thanks for having me, Jen, and have a great day everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Duane Morris Takeaway: This week&#8217;s episode of the Class Action Weekly Wire features Duane Morris partner Jennifer Riley and associate Nathan Norimoto with their discussion of recent developments in a Massachusetts wage &amp; hour suit brought by delivery drivers alleging independent contractor misclassification. Check out today\u2019s episode and subscribe to our show from your preferred &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/2023\/11\/03\/the-class-action-weekly-wire-episode-37-delivery-drivers-misclassification-suit-stayed-pending-scotus-arbitration-ruling\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Class Action Weekly Wire \u2013 Episode 37: Delivery Drivers\u2019 Misclassification Suit Stayed Pending SCOTUS Arbitration Ruling&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":583,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[30],"class_list":["post-925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class-action-weekly-wire"],"authors":[{"term_id":30,"user_id":583,"is_guest":0,"slug":"classactiondefense","display_name":"Class Action Defense","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2020\/10\/dmlogo.jpg","author_category":"","last_name":"Defense","first_name":"Class Action","job_title":"","user_url":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/583"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=925"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}