Flower Foods Inc. defeated a lawsuit by three distributors accusing the baking company of misclassifying them as independent contractors to deny them retirement benefits.
The distributors’ claim to recover benefits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act fails because they couldn’t show that they were eligible for participation in the plan, Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia held July 16.
The decision is a victory for Flowers Foods, one of the largest wholesale bakeries in the country, in a lawsuit that sought to hold it liable for allegedly classifying certain individuals as independent contractors rather than employees eligible for overtime compensation and benefits. Last year, the distributors agreed to voluntarily dismiss a claim for overtime compensation under the Fair Labor Standards Act because a similar claim is pending in federal court in Florida.
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