Phillip Miller sued Weiser Security Services for employment discrimination. Weiser moved to compel arbitration under his employment agreement’s arbitration clause, invoking the Federal Arbitration Act. Miller argued he fell under the FAA’s exemption for “transportation workers” engaged in interstate or foreign commerce — a carve-out that lets certain workers avoid being forced into arbitration.
Miller submitted a declaration describing his duties as a port security officer, but the trial court found it didn’t show he played a sufficiently direct, necessary, and active role in the actual movement of goods across borders — the standard the U.S. Supreme Court set out in Southwest Airlines v. Saxon and reaffirmed in Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries. Guarding a port, without more, isn’t the same as transporting the goods that move through it.
The First District affirmed the order compelling arbitration.
Citation: Miller v. Weiser Security Services, Inc., No. 1D2025-3181 (Fla. 1st DCA July 8, 2026).