Supreme Court Deals Blow to Southwest in Baggage Handlers Suit

The United States Supreme Court on Monday dealt a blow to Southwest Airlines, ruling that a lawsuit filed by a baggage handler concerning overtime pay cannot be forced into arbitration and must continue to be heard in court.

The unanimous 8-0 decision was written by Justice Clarence Thomas, according to Reuters News Service.

The lawsuit was first filed in 2019 by Southwest employee Latrice Saxon who worked for the carrier in Chicago. Saxon, a ramp supervisor, alleged that Southwest failed to pay overtime to workers. Initially, a federal court did send the case to arbitration, ruling that baggage handlers were not involved in interstate commerce.

But the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that ruling, which in turn led to Southwest appealing to the Supreme Court.

But according to Thomas’ opinion, the Southwest baggage handlers do indeed participate in the process of interstate commerce since they deal with cargo that crosses state lines, even though they are physically based in one place such as an airport.

Southwest Airlines provided a statement to Reuters saying the ruling would have little to no impact on the carrier since most baggage handlers are part of a union, which has its own process to handle wage claims.

The court stressed this ruling regarding the baggage handlers does not apply to all aviation workers. But as Reuters pointed out, it could have repercussions for other companies that routinely deal with workers handling cargo and merchandise that cross state lines, such as Amazon.