Arbitration, FAA, Transportation Workers: SCOTUS Holds FAA Transportation Worker Exemption Applies To Airline Workers Who Load Cargo

The FAA Exempts Interstate-Transportation Workers And Others Like Them From Arbitration.

        On June 6, 2022, in an 8-0 opinion authored by Justice Clarence Thomas, SCOTUS held that Latrice Saxon, a ramp supervisor for Southwest Airlines, was exempted by the Federal Arbitration Act from having to arbitrate. Southwest Airlines v. Saxon, No. 21-309 (S. Ct. 6/6/22). A catchall-phrase in the FAA, exempting from arbitration "any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce” covered Saxon. 

        COMMENT: Saxon brought a putative class action for wage and hour violations. How helpful the ruling will be for class actions involving workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce is uncertain, because SCOTUS did not accept Saxon's argument that the exemption applied broadly to all airline workers. At the same time, SCOTUS did not accept Southwest Airlines' argument that the exemption applied  narrowly to workers who actually transported goods across state lines. In future cases, the courts will have to look closely at the specific facts to determine the scope of the exemption.