Flowers Foods Driver Keeps Wage Arbitration Exemption on Appeal

Flowers Foods Inc. and two subsidiaries lost their bid to make a bakery distribution driver arbitrate his wage claims when an appellate court Tuesday agreed he falls under a federal arbitration carveout for transportation workers.

The lower court correctly determined that the driver’s role moving Flowers Foods baked goods such as Wonder Bread and Tastykake products from a warehouse to local stores qualifies for the Federal Arbitration Act’s transportation worker exemption, the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit said.

The carveout—which was at the center of Flowers Foods’ unsuccessful US Supreme Court fight with other distribution ...