Christopher Ward Featured Across Media for Insight on SCOTUS Decision in Worker Classification Case

Foley & Lardner LLP partner Christopher Ward is featured across the media for his insights on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Flowers Foods Inc. et al. v. Angelo Brock, a worker classification dispute with significant implications for businesses nationwide.

On the continued legal uncertainty surrounding contracting worker-formed entities, which was not considered by the Court in Flowers, Ward told Bloomberg Law that “even if companies decide to contract with worker-formed business entities instead of individuals — a practice worker advocates decry as creating ‘sham corporate agreements’—to help mitigate wage liability, whether such contractual agreements are covered by the exemption will occupy murky legal ground until the high court weighs in.”

He added that this is a “major area of litigation” that lower courts are considering.

In the Law360 article, “Justices’ ‘Last-Mile’ Driver Ruling Leaves Open Questions,” Ward said the ruling “very carefully rejects the bright line rule proposed by the petitioners,” adding that “what it doesn’t do is give really any clarity as to how this should apply beyond that, even with respect to these last-mile drivers.”

“I think you’re still going to see a lot of litigation over these other issues,” he continued.

Ward told HRDive that he “had hoped the Court would give guidance to address the lower courts’ ongoing expansion of the exemption to those types of classes of workers, and this opinion does nothing to curtail that or help lower courts figure out what is transportation and what is not.”

In Freight Waves, Ward shared that he saw the Brock decision as widening the exemption in the Federal Arbitration Act. “For years, the Supreme Court has said the transportation exemption is narrow, but in recent transportation worker cases, it has taken a less narrow view,” he said.

As a result of these precedents, Ward said “lower courts are using these opinions to substantially expand the exemption even beyond what the Supreme Court may have suggested.”

Ward’s commentary also appeared in Bloomberg Tax and Yahoo.

For more analysis of Flowers Foods Inc. v. Brock, please click here.

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