Pepperidge Farm Drivers in Pennsylvania Deemed Contractors

Pepperidge Farm delivery drivers in Pennsylvania are independent contractors under the state’s wage law, not employees, the Third Circuit ruled Friday.

The most important of the ten factors Pennsylvania courts assess when deciding a worker’s status under the state’s Wage Payment and Collection Law is whether a worker has a right to control the way in which they do their work.

“In this case, the right-to-control factor favors independent-contractor status,” the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit wrote in an unpublished, non-binding opinion.

“Pepperidge Farm has little ability to control the time, place, and manner” in which drivers deliver the company’s products, the opinion said. Instead, drivers have autonomy to “choose their distribution routes by buying and selling them, organize their distribution businesses as they like, hire employees to do their work for them, set their own hours, and make deliveries when and how they see fit,” the opinion said.

Two of the factors the court examined—whether the drivers’ business is distinct from Pepperidge Farm’s and whether their work is part of the company’s regular business—"were either neutral or could favor an employment relationship,” but those points don’t outweigh the majority of other factors suggesting the drivers are independent contractors, the court said.

Judge Cindy K. Chung wrote the opinion. Judges Cheryl Ann Krause and Marjorie O. Rendell were also on the panel.

The case is Carpenter v. Pepperidge Farm, Inc., 3d Cir., No. 23-2372, opinion 5/10/24.