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Are Delivery Drivers Exempt From Arbitration Under the FAA? Two Courts Set to Weigh In


In both the First Circuit Court of Appeals and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the Courts are considering two cases that ask whether delivery drivers are exempt from arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”).  For those unaware, if an employee is held to fall under an exemption of the FAA, the employee cannot be compelled to arbitrate a matter with their employer.  In these two cases, the delivery drivers of an employer are attempting to argue that they are transportation workers under the FAA, given their delivery work, and therefore are exempt from arbitration under the FAA.

As for the case in the First Circuit, Canales v. LePage Bakeries Park Street, the employer is asking the Court to reverse a district court finding that the employer’s delivery drivers are transportation workers and therefore exempt from arbitration under the FAA.

In regard to the case in the Second Circuit, Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries Park St., LLC, the delivery drivers have asked the full Court to reverse its holding that event though the drivers drive trucks, they are in the bakery industry rather than the transportation industry…and therefore not exempt from arbitration under the FAA.

Both cases will be interesting to follow in the coming months.  Might dueling holdings result in the Supreme Court stepping in to solve a split among circuits?  That is looking rather far down the road, pardon the pun in this context, but certainly possible.

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