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US Supreme Court Holds Airport Ramp Supervisors Exempted From Coverage Under FAA
Practical Law Legal Update w-035-8101 (Approx. 5 pages)
US Supreme Court Holds Airport Ramp Supervisors Exempted From Coverage Under FAA
by Practical Law Litigation
| Law stated as of 06 Jun 2022 • USA (National/Federal) |
In Sw. Airlines Co. v. Saxon, the US Supreme Court resolved a circuit split and held that airport ramp supervisors are transportation workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce and their employment contracts are exempt from Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) coverage.
On June 6, 2022, in Sw. Airlines Co. v. Saxon, the US Supreme Court resolved a circuit split and held that airport ramp supervisors are transportation workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce and their employment contracts are exempt from Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) coverage ( (June 6, 2022)).
Latrice Saxon, a ramp supervisor for Southwest Airlines at Midway airport who trained and supervised ramp agents that load and unload cargo from airplanes, filed a putative class action alleging that Southwest failed to pay overtime wages to ramp supervisors in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Saxon's employment contract required her to arbitrate wage disputes individually, so Southwest moved to dismiss the case and enforce the arbitration agreement. Saxon argued that she was exempt from FAA coverage because ramp supervisors engage in interstate commerce (9 U.S.C. § 1). The district court held that ramp supervisors were not exempt under the FAA because they were not involved in the actual transportation of goods, but merely handled them. The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit disagreed and reversed.
The US Supreme Court affirmed, holding that airport ramp supervisors are transportation workers that fall under the FAA's exemption for "contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce" (9 U.S.C. § 1; see also Circuit City Stores, Inc. v. Adams, 532 U.S. 105, 119, 121 (2001)). The Supreme Court reasoned that:
- Because it was uncontroverted that ramp supervisors at Midway frequently load and unload cargo, the court need not decide whether supervision of cargo loading alone would also fall within the FAA's § 1 exemption.
- Airport ramp supervisors at Midway are members of a class of workers who frequently load and unload cargo from airplanes.
- A plain reading of the text of Section 1 indicates that airline employees who load and unload cargo from airplanes that travel in interstate commerce are engaged in the interstate transportation of goods.
- Context also supports this reading because cargo loaders are transportation workers that are intimately involved with the interstate transportation of that cargo.
The Supreme Court's decision resolved a circuit split on the issue between the Seventh Circuit and the Fifth Circuit, which held in Eastus v. ISS Facility Servs., Inc. that a former account manager for ISS Facility Services, Inc. who handled passenger luggage at the George Bush International Airport in Houston, Texas was not a transportation worker exempt from coverage under the FAA (960 F.3d 207, 208 (5th Cir. 2020)).