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Mealey's Employment

  • April 18, 2025

    Magistrate Advises Dismissal Of ‘As Regarded’ ADA Claim Based On Vaccination Status

    PITTSBURGH — Concluding that being unvaccinated for COVID-19 cannot be the basis for a perceived disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a Pennsylvania federal magistrate judge recommended granting the partial motion to dismiss of a pharmaceutical company in a former employee’s lawsuit alleging that the company failed to accommodate what it perceived as the medical disability of being unvaccinated and thus immunocompromised.

  • April 18, 2025

    Pennsylvania Federal Judge Awards Reduced $982,998 In Fees In Denny’s Settlement

    PITTSBURGH — A Pennsylvania federal judge has awarded a plaintiff in a wage and hour class settlement involving Denny’s restaurants $982,998 in attorney fees, reducing the requested amount by 11% for a variety of reasons, including reasonable fees for the Pittsburgh legal market.

  • April 17, 2025

    Trump Posits Power As NLRB, MSPB Members Fight Removal In U.S. High Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — One day after ousted members of the National Labor Relations Board and Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) asked the U.S. Supreme Court to deny an application filed by President Donald J. Trump and other federal government officials to overturn a split District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling vacating a stay of their reinstatements to the boards, arguing the removal decisions were hasty and unprecedented, the federal government in an April 16 reply brief doubled down its stance, stating that Article II of the of the U.S. Constitution “vests the ‘executive Power’—'all of it’—in the President alone” to fire leaders of executive agencies.

  • April 17, 2025

    COVID Vaccine Failure-To- Accommodate Claims Dropped Against Third-Party Evaluators

    CAMDEN, N.J. — A New Jersey federal court filed an opinion after earlier granting the motion to dismiss of a medical services provider and a physician in a lawsuit by an employment candidate alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), negligence and other claims in connection with an assessment of the employee’s medical history requested by the prospective employer after the candidate requested a medical exemption from a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination.

  • April 16, 2025

    Susman Godfrey Granted TRO In Suit Alleging Trump EO Is Unconstitutional

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on April 15 granted Susman Godfrey LLP’s motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) in its lawsuit against various federal agencies and officials over an April 9 executive order (EO) that it says unconstitutionally targets it due to “its work defending the integrity of the 2020 presidential election.”  It is the fourth law firm to be granted a TRO after becoming a target of an EO since the start of President Donald J. Trump’s second term.

  • April 15, 2025

    Panel: Title VII Does Not Require Allowing Unvaccinated ER Doctor To Work Onsite

    PHILADELPHIA — Finding that accommodating an emergency room doctor’s religious objection to the COVID-19 vaccine would be an undue burden on a hospital, a panel of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of a Pennsylvania federal court, which granted summary judgment in favor of the hospital in a lawsuit alleging religious discrimination and retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA) after the doctor was refused a religious exemption from a company-mandated COVID-19 vaccination and suspended.

  • April 14, 2025

    Susman Godfrey Sues Federal Government After Being Targeted In Executive Order

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald J. Trump’s use of executive orders (EOs) to “retaliat[e] against organizations and people that he dislikes” and halt business with certain law firms, revoke security clearances and restrict their access to government buildings is unconstitutional, and if the EOs are allowed to stand, they will permit future presidents to freely “seek to retaliate against a different set of perceived foes,” Susman Godfrey LLP argues in its April 11 complaint filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia; the firm is the fifth to become a target of an EO since the start of Trump’s second term.

  • April 14, 2025

    EEOC Announces 4 Law Firms Entered Settlement Agreement Disavowing DEI

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced April 11 that four law firms — Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Latham & Watkins LLP, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and A&O Shearman Sterling LLC — have entered a settlement agreement abandoning any diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, programs and practices.

  • April 14, 2025

    Potbelly Sandwich Shop Owner Sues Employment Practices Liability Insurer

    SEATTLE — The owner and operator of several Potbelly Sandwich Shops in Washington state sued its employment practices liability insurer in a Washington court, alleging breach of contract and seeking a declaratory judgment that the insurer has a duty to defend and indemnify it against an underlying putative class alleging that it violated the Washington Equal Pay and Opportunities Act by not providing wage and salary information to job applicants in Washington.

  • April 11, 2025

    Appeals Court Revives 2 BIPA Suits Over Nursing Homes’ Biometric Timeclocks

    MT. VERNON, Ill. — In a pair of almost identical unpublished opinions, a Fifth District Appellate Court of Illinois panel reversed a trial court’s dismissal of two putative class actions by former employees alleging violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) via nursing facilities’ use of biometric timeclocks.

  • April 10, 2025

    7th Circuit Reopens Back Pay, Affirms Seniority In Sheriff’s Office ADA Case

    CHICAGO — A Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel put back pay back on the table and affirmed seniority benefits for a former Cook County, Ill., correctional officer who sued his employers for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and the U.S. Constitution for requiring release of his medical records to complete a fitness-for-duty exam to return to work after he was put on leave following run-ins with other staff.

  • April 10, 2025

    Split Panel Stays Preliminary Injunction In States’ Federal Worker Firings Case

    RICHMOND, Va. — A preliminary injunction partially granted by a federal judge in Maryland in a suit by 19 states and the District of Columbia over the firing of probationary federal workers en masse was stayed April 9 by a divided Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel.

  • April 10, 2025

    Nonprofit Seeks Preliminary Injunction In Suit Over DEI Executive Order

    CHICAGO — A nonprofit that prepares women to enter and remain in high-wage skilled trades filed a reply in a federal court in Illinois in support of its preliminary injunction motion in a case challenging President Donald J. Trump’s Jan. 20 and 21 executive orders (EOs) declaring programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) “‘illegal and immoral discrimination.’”

  • April 10, 2025

    4th Circuit Stays Preliminary Injunction In USAID Workers’ Shutdown Suit

    RICHMOND, Va. — A Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel stayed pending resolution of the appeal a trial court’s order partially granting a preliminary injunction in a case by 26 unnamed U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) workers who allege that actions by Elon Musk and others to shut down the agency violate the U.S. Constitution.

  • April 09, 2025

    U.S. High Court Chief Justice Stays Reinstatements Of NLRB, MSPB Members

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. issued an order April 9 staying the reinstatements of National Labor Relations Board Member Gwynne A. Wilcox and Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) Member Cathy A. Harris as ordered by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia pending further review by the chief justice or the high court; the order was issued in response to an application filed hours earlier by President Donald J. Trump and other federal government officials after a split District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated a stay of the reinstatements.

  • April 09, 2025

    EEOC Commissioner Sues Trump, Agency, Acting Chair, Calling Removal ‘Illegal’

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald J. Trump’s order one week after his inauguration that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission remove Commissioner Jocelyn Samuels prior to her term expiring in July 2026 was part of the Trump “Administration’s efforts to turn back the clock on decades of established precedent protecting workers and job applicants from discrimination,” Samuels alleges in her complaint filed April 9 in a federal court in the District of Columbia.

  • April 09, 2025

    Unions’ Motion In Bargaining EO Suit Will Be Treated As For Preliminary Injunction

    SAN FRANCISCO — A motion for a temporary restraining order filed by unions suing over a March executive order that limited certain federal workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively will be treated as a motion for a preliminary injunction, a federal judge in California said in an April 8 order.

  • April 09, 2025

    U.S. High Court Declines To Hear Appeal Of Detainee Wage Collective, Class Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a Maryland county seeking a ruling on “[w]hether inmates working in furtherance of public works projects for the government charged with their custody and care” are employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

  • April 09, 2025

    6th Circuit: Workers’ Bribery Scheme Suit Preempted, Belongs In Federal Court

    CINCINNATI — State law claims by engineers that their employer and union engaged in a bribery scheme are preempted by the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) and belong in federal rather than state court, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming the trial court’s denial of remand.

  • April 08, 2025

    Split U.S. High Court Stays Preliminary Injunction In Federal Worker Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A split U.S. Supreme Court on April 8 stayed a preliminary injunction entered by a federal trial court on March 13 directing the reinstatement of more than 16,000 probationary workers from six federal agencies, pending disposition of an appeal before the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and a petition for a writ of certiorari if one is sought.

  • April 08, 2025

    Unions’, Employees’ Privacy Act, APA Suit Over DOGE’s OPM Access To Proceed

    NEW YORK — Claims brought against the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) by two labor unions and three individual federal employees over the agency’s grant of access to private personnel records to the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) largely survived a motion to dismiss, with a New York federal judge finding that the plaintiffs sufficiently pleaded their claims under the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

  • April 08, 2025

    22 States Seek TRO In Lawsuit Over Library, Other Agency Eliminations

    PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A March 14 executive order (EO) directing the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and other agencies to eliminate programs and components not mandated by statute and reduce staff and functions directly impacts states and funding for state employees, Rhode Island and 21 other states argue in their complaint and motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) filed against President Donald J. Trump and other federal officials and offices in a federal court in Rhode Island.

  • April 08, 2025

    6th Circuit Denies Panel Rehearing In Group’s Appeal Over Captive Audience Memo

    CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a motion for panel rehearing or to vacate and dismiss filed by a trade association after a panel affirmed a trial court’s dismissal of the association’s suit challenging a memorandum on captive-audience meetings issued by the former National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel and the acting general counsel one day later rescinded the memorandum in question.

  • April 07, 2025

    Split En Banc D.C. Circuit Vacates Stay Of NLRB, MSPB Members’ Reinstatements

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided en banc District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 7, citing Humphrey’s Executor v. United States and Wiener v. United States, vacated a March 28 divided panel order that stayed the reinstatements of a member of the National Labor Relations Board and a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) pending appeal; on the same day, the court issued a second per curiam order denying petitions by the NLRB and MSPB members for an initial merits hearing en banc.

  • April 07, 2025

    Federal Worker Union Seeks Injunctive Relief After EO Nixes Collective Bargaining

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents nearly 160,000 federal government workers in 37 agencies, filed a motion for a preliminary injunction on April 4 in a federal court in the District of Columbia seeking to halt the impact of a March 27 executive order (EO) by President Donald J. Trump that the union says eliminates collective bargaining for approximately two-thirds of the federal workforce.