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Mealey's Employment

  • January 21, 2025

    Former Employee With Long COVID Alleges Her Firing By UPS Violated ADA, FMLA

    PORTLAND, Maine — A former employee of a package delivery company filed suit against her former employer, alleging that her termination after developing “long COVID” was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and state and federal family and medical leave statutes.

  • January 21, 2025

    Federal Employees Union Sues President, Others Over Day 1 Executive Order

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A labor union that represents federal government workers in 37 agencies and departments filed a complaint on Jan. 20 in a federal court in the District of Columbia against President Donald Trump and five others alleging that an executive order (EO) signed shortly after the inauguration “attempts to strip civil service and due process protections from a large swath of federal employees.”

  • January 21, 2025

    Medical Services Provider Accused Of Unlawfully ‘Annexing’ Sports Clinic

    LOS ANGELES — Two entities involved in operating a provider of sports medicine and orthopedic surgery and two affiliated doctors filed a complaint in California state court accusing a nonprofit medical services provider and its executives of unlawfully seeking to “absorb . . . and unlawfully control” the sports medicine providers in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), trademark dilution laws and other state laws prohibiting employment-related retaliation.

  • January 21, 2025

    Union, 2 Nonprofits Sue President, OMB Over Government Efficiency Department

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Shortly after the inauguration on Jan. 20, Donald J. Trump and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) were sued in a federal court in the District of Columbia by a government employees union and two nonprofits that allege that the formation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).

  • January 17, 2025

    Michigan Jury Awards $133,000 To Employee Fired For Refusing COVID-19 Vaccination

    DETROIT — A Michigan federal jury on Jan. 16 awarded $133,000 to a former employee of a resort after determining that his refusal to take the COVID-19 vaccine was based on a sincerely held religious belief and that the resort failed to prove that accommodating the employee’s religious beliefs would have caused it to suffer an undue hardship.

  • January 16, 2025

    2nd Circuit: No Gender Bias By Trader Joe’s For Pandemic Trip Firing

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel, in affirming a Connecticut federal judge’s order granting summary judgment, has determined that “no reasonable factfinder could conclude on” the record presented that Trader Joe’s termination of a female employee after she took a vacation out of the country during the escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic following a written warning and negative performance review “was a pretext for sex discrimination or that sex discrimination was an otherwise motivating factor” in the decision.

  • January 15, 2025

    High Court: Preponderance Of Evidence Standard Applies To FLSA Exemption Cases

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled Jan. 15 that the preponderance of the evidence standard applies when an employer seeks to show that an employee is exempt from the minimum and overtime compensation requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), rejecting the argument by employees that the clear and convincing evidence standard must apply.

  • January 15, 2025

    3rd Circuit Denies Rehearing After Dismissal Of Cannabis Use Suit Upheld

    PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing filed by a job applicant after the panel majority upheld a ruling finding that a New Jersey law prohibiting the firing of workers for cannabis use does not create a private cause of action.

  • January 15, 2025

    Split 7th Circuit Denies Rehearing En Banc After FLSA Jurisdiction Ruling

    CHICAGO — The majority of the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing and/or rehearing en banc filed by a worker in the United States on an H-2A visa who brought collective wage-and-hour claims after a divided panel ruled that “[a] court overseeing a collective action must secure personal jurisdiction over each plaintiff’s claim, whether representative or opt-in, individually.”

  • January 15, 2025

    4th Circuit Reverses Dismissal Of Fired Worker’s Religious Bias Vaccine Suit

    RICHMOND, Va. — A nurse who alleged religious discrimination and failure to provide reasonable accommodation after her employer denied her request for a religious exemption to its COVID-19 vaccination policy sufficiently alleged that her vaccination beliefs were rooted in her religious beliefs, a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, reversing a trial court’s dismissal of the complaint.

  • January 14, 2025

    U.S. High Court Hears Arguments On Age Bias Case Status After Voluntary Dismissal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on Jan. 14 on whether voluntary dismissals under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41 are “final” and may be reopened under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b).

  • January 14, 2025

    Florida Furniture Retailer Will Pay $1.48M To Settle EEOC Gender Bias Class Claims

    TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida-based furniture retail company will pay $1,482,748 and provide equitable relief to end a lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that the company had a policy of not hiring female applicants for driver and warehouse positions, according to a consent decree signed by a federal judge in Florida.

  • January 14, 2025

    U.S. Supreme Court Denies Professors’ 1st Amendment Representation Petition

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 13 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed City University of New York (CUNY) professors who argued that their First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution rights are being violated as they are required to belong to a bargaining unit they accuse of engaging in anti-Semitic and anti-Israel conduct.

  • January 14, 2025

    Walmart’s $5.2M Class Settlement Approved In Workers’ COVID-19 Screening Case

    FRESNO, Calif. — A federal magistrate judge in California granted final approval of a $5.2 million class settlement to be paid by Walmart Inc. to end a case by workers who alleged that the retailer’s policy requiring nonexempt workers in that state to undergo a COVID-19 screening each shift without pay violated state and federal wage-and-hour laws, as well as California’s unfair competition law.

  • January 14, 2025

    Arguments On Disability Bias Rights Of Former Employee Heard By U.S. High Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Jan. 13 on whether a retired employee of a Florida city has the right to sue under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for discrimination related to the distribution of fringe benefits that took effect after her employment ended.

  • January 13, 2025

    Damages Capped In EEOC Bias Case; Permanent Injunction Partially Granted

    SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A federal judge in New York, ruling on motions from both sides following a jury’s $1,675,000 verdict for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in a case in which the agency accused a distribution company of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when it failed to interview and hire a deaf applicant, applied the $300,000 statutory cap to the compensatory and punitive damages and partially granted the EEOC’s motion for a permanent injunction.

  • January 13, 2025

    3rd Circuit Rules On Unfair Practices, Jurisdiction To Consider ALJ Removal

    PHILADELPHIA — A Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that it lacked jurisdiction to consider an employer’s challenge of removal protections for an administrative law judge (ALJ) but that “substantial evidence” supported the National Labor Relations Board’s finding that Starbucks Corp. committed unfair labor practices when it terminated two baristas who were involved in labor organizing.

  • January 13, 2025

    10th Circuit: Worker Collective Failed To Show Age Bias With Policy Changes, RIF

    DENVER — Workers laid off from an aerostructure manufacturer as part of a reduction in force (RIF) failed to show that the company’s policy changes and statements and the manner in which the RIF was carried out constituted age discrimination, a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a trial court’s summary judgment ruling for the employer on the employee’s collective action claims.

  • January 13, 2025

    Appellees To 9th Circuit: Uphold Dismissal Of ERISA Suit Over Severance Benefits

    SAN FRANCISCO — Urging the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm dismissal of a putative class case filed by former Twitter employees and reject arguments that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) makes as amicus curiae, Elon Musk and related entities argue in part in a Jan. 10 brief that precedent supports the ruling that the workers didn’t plausibly allege that a purported severance plan is governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

  • January 10, 2025

    10th Circuit Accepts Employee’s Late Rehearing Bid In COVID Vaccine Refusal Case

    DENVER — The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a request to accept an untimely petition for rehearing en banc submitted by a former nursing center employee seeking review of a panel judgment affirming the dismissal of her First Amendment free exercise claim stemming from her termination for refusing to be vaccinated for COVID-19 as mandated by a state health board emergency rule.

  • January 09, 2025

    4th Circuit Vacates Certification Of Bojangles Wage Class For Abuse Of Discretion

    RICHMOND, Va. — A trial court abused its discretion when it certified two classes of Bojangles’ Restaurants Inc. shift managers in a wage-and-hour complaint as “it employed an inappropriately high level of generality when” it identified the policies allegedly related to the claim and when it created “overly broad class definitions,” a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, vacating the certification order and remanding.

  • January 08, 2025

    Decade-Long Amazon Wage-And-Hour MDL Dismissed After $11.1M Settlement Approved

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A federal judge in Kentucky dismissed with prejudice a multidistrict litigation accusing Amazon.com Inc. and related parties of failing to pay workers for time spent undergoing mandatory security screenings stating that all matters had been resolved; the order was filed a little over two weeks after an $11.1 million settlement between the online retailer and California workers was granted final approval.

  • January 08, 2025

    Home Depot’s $9.5 Million Meal, Rest Period Settlement Granted Final Approval

    SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington in a pair of orders granted final approval of a $9.5 million class settlement by The Home Depot Inc. and Home Depot USA Inc. (together, Home Depot) in a complaint by workers who alleged that the companies owed unpaid wages and compensation for rest and meal breaks the workers were denied and approved the requested attorney fees, costs and incentive awards.

  • January 08, 2025

    Class Certification Denied In Amazon Driver’s Expenses, Misclassification Case

    SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington denied a renewed motion for class certification filed by an Amazon.com Inc. and Amazon Logistics Inc. (together, Amazon) driver who alleges that he and other have been misclassified and were made to pay for business expenses and dismissed the driver’s Massachusetts Wage Act claim “for failure to state a viable claim.”

  • January 08, 2025

    Wal-Mart Applicant Seeks Rehearing After Dismissal Of Cannabis Use Suit Upheld

    PHILADELPHIA — A Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority erred in upholding a ruling finding that a New Jersey law prohibiting the firing of workers for cannabis use does not create a private cause of action as the “novel question of state law” needed to be certified to the New Jersey Supreme Court, the majority’s analysis of the case “conflicts with decisions of the Supreme Court and” the Third Circuit and the majority’s “interpretation effectively nullifies core employment protections that the New Jersey Legislature enacted, agues a job applicant whose job offer was rescinded after testing positive for cannabis in a petition for rehearing.