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Jeffrey Shooman Quoted in Law360 Article on FAA’s Transportation Worker Exemption

New York, N.Y. (October 13, 2022) – New York Partner Jeffrey Shooman was recently quoted in a Law360 Employment Authority article on recent rulings that limit the Federal Arbitration Act’s (FAA) transportation worker exemption to only those businesses that bring in commercial revenue through transportation. 

The article, titled “Transport Worker Exemption About More Than Moving Goods,” highlights Second Circuit and South Carolina federal cases in which courts ruled that distributors who transported various baked goods on trucks from a central facility to retailers are classified as bakery workers, not transportation workers, and therefore, their wage and hour claims should be heard in arbitration, according to the terms of their distributor agreements. The article further notes that this FAA exemption has been a recurring issue before the U.S. Supreme Court, with the Justices ruling in a 2019 case that the exemption may apply regardless of whether someone works as an employee or an independent contractor. 

According to Mr. Shooman, an employee can only be classified as a transportation worker if they work in the transportation industry, "the mission of which is to move goods," he explains. Even if delivering products to customers is a part of a food manufacturing workers’ job, that does not make them eligible for "transportation" worker exemptions. "Is the movement of the goods at most a component of the total price that the end user pays?" Mr. Shooman posited to Law360. "If it's only a component … then the exemption just doesn't apply." 

Mr. Shooman is a member of Lewis Brisbois' Labor & Employment Practice. An experienced trial and appellate litigator with more than 15 years of experience, he has litigated trial court cases in both federal and state courts from coast to coast. 

Read the full Law360 Employment Authority Article here (subscription may be required).  

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