in Newswire Published on May 25, 2018

Flowers Foods Tagged with Employee Misclassification Suit in Kentucky [UPDATE]

Last Updated on November 11, 2021

Columbia v. Flowers Foods, Inc. et al

Filed: May 14, 2018 ◆§ 3:18cv302

Flowers Foods, Inc. and Flowers Baking Co. of Bardstown, LLC are the defendants in a proposed collective action filed in Kentucky federal court.

Defendant(s)

Flowers Foods Flowers Baking Co. of New Orleans LLC

Law(s)

Fair Labor Standards Act

State(s)

Kentucky

Case Updates

November 11, 2021 – Lawsuit Settled

The lawsuit detailed on this page was settled as part of a $9 million deal that resolved claims in a handful of consolidated cases filed by Flowers Foods distributors.

The settlement was approved on February 27, 2019 and, for this case, covered certain distributors who worked for a Flowers Baking entity between May 14, 2015 and September 7, 2018.

Check out this page for more details on the settlement.

Flowers Foods, Inc. and Flowers Baking Co. of Bardstown, LLC are the defendants in a proposed collective action filed in Kentucky federal court. The plaintiff, who filed the case on behalf of all current and former similarly situated workers, claims the defendants unlawfully misclassified those working as distributors as independent contractors and thereby failed to pay proper time-and-a-half overtime wages.

The case says distributors are tasked with delivering fresh baked goods to the defendants’ customers—grocery stores, mass retailers, fast food chains—as well as stocking shelves, retrieving outdated products and assembling promotional displays. According to the complaint, the defendants have “regularly and routinely” forced distributors to work more than 40 hours per week without overtime in what the case describes as a scheme to deprive members of the proposed collective of proper wages.

In describing the level of control the defendants supposedly have over distributors’ day-to-day work lives, the lawsuit claims that while Flowers Foods represented to the workers that they would be able to run their businesses independently, the company has effectively denied the proposed collective the benefits of ownership and entrepreneurial skill by keeping from distributors:

The right to negotiate wholesale prices;

The right to negotiate shelf space in stores located in the workers’ territories;

The right to negotiate retail sale prices;

The right to “establish all sales and promotions”;

The right to withhold pay for certain expenses; and

The right to unilaterally end the employment relationship.

Even further, the case says distributors cannot change orders placed with the defendant and are required to repay Flowers Foods for products they did not order. Similarly, Flowers Foods supposedly retains the right to discipline distributors, as well as determine when time can be taken off work.

“Flowers Defendants’ mischaracterization of the named Plaintiff and members of the proposed collective class, the concealment or non-disclosure of the true nature of the relationship between them and Defendants, and the attendant deprivation of substantial rights and benefits of employment during the class periods have been a part of an on-going unlawful practice by Flowers Defendants,” the lawsuit states.

Open Document

Last Updated on November 11, 2021 — 4:22 PM

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