From HRDive, Katie Clarey reports on a settlement between workers and the company that makes Wonder Bread of claims alleging that the workers were misclassified as independent contractors and not a paid overtime. Katie writes:
- Flowers Foods — the company that bakes for brands including Wonder Bread, Sunbeam and Tastykake — has struck an agreement to settle a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) misclassification lawsuit for $9 million (Green, et al. v. Flowers Foods, et al., No. 19-cv-01021 (W.D. Tenn. Feb. 8, 2019)).
- The suit alleged Flowers misclassified its “distributors” as independent contractors. Although they were classified as contractors, the distributors said, Flowers Foods controlled all aspects of their relationships with the company and their customers. Therefore, they should have received time-and-a-half pay for the overtime they frequently worked, the workers alleged.
- As part of the agreement, the distributors consented to adding an arbitration agreement to their terms of employment, the settlement motion said.
Source: Wonder Bread supplier to settle distributors’ misclassification claims for $9M | HR Dive
