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Mealey's Employment

  • February 21, 2025

    Judge Denies TRO In Unions’ ‘Mass Firings’ Suit, Rules Claims Must Go Before FLRA

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Claims by five unions that represent employees in dozens of federal agencies and departments challenging recent executive actions taken to slash the size of the federal workforce belong before the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled Feb. 20, denying the unions’ motion for a temporary restraining order and request for a preliminary injunction.

  • February 21, 2025

    2nd Circuit Upholds Pension Ruling For NBA Ref Terminated Over Vaccine Requirement

    NEW YORK — Issuing a Feb. 20 summary order in favor of a former NBA Services Corp. (NSC) referee who was terminated for not being vaccinated against COVID-19, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed that the termination meant he qualified for a pension payment of nearly $3 million even though he has a separate pending discrimination lawsuit over the termination.

  • February 21, 2025

    Split U.S. High Court Allows For Section 1983 Claims In Unemployment Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Alabama can’t effectively immunize state officials from claims by unemployed workers brought under 42 U.S. Code Section 1983 for the alleged unlawful delay in processing their unemployment benefits by requiring the claimants to first satisfy the administrative-exhaustion requirement in Alabama Code Section 25-4-95, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled Feb. 21.

  • February 21, 2025

    Judge: Accommodating Workers’ Religious Objections To Vaccination An Undue Burden

    EUGENE, Ore. — An Oregon federal judge granted the motion for summary judgment of a dental practice and its president in a lawsuit by former employees who were terminated for refusing a COVID-19 vaccination and alleged that the defendants failed to accommodate their religious beliefs in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and state law.

  • February 21, 2025

    8th Circuit Finds States Have Standing To Sue EEOC Over Pregnant Workers Act

    ST. LOUIS — Tennessee and 16 other states that sued the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission challenging the portions of regulations “to carry out” the Pregnancy Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) that deal with abortion have standing to bring suit under Article III of the U.S. Constitution, an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Feb. 20, reversing a trial court’s ruling.

  • February 21, 2025

    9th Circuit Affirms Attorney Fees For Employees Sued In Trade Secret Misuse Case

    SAN FRANCISCO — After affirming a summary judgment order more than three years earlier, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed an Arizona federal judge’s order granting attorney fees to former employees of a financial retirement company who were sued for alleged misappropriation of trade secrets and confidential information, finding that the claims arose out of a contract between the employees and the company.

  • February 20, 2025

    Association For USAID Contract Workers Seeks TRO After Funding Halted

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A voluntary association of U.S. citizen personal services contractors (USPSCs) employed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) filed a motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) on Feb. 19 in a federal court in the District of Columbia requesting that USPSCs be returned to the terms and conditions of employment they had prior to Jan. 20 when President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order that paused the United States’ “foreign development assistance.”

  • February 20, 2025

    Unions Sue OPM, Director Seeking To Enjoin En Masse Firings Of Federal Workers

    SAN FRANCISCO — An order by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Director Charles Ezell for “federal agencies [to] terminate [probationary] employees en masse” violates the U.S. Constitution and statutory law, four unions that represent federal workers allege in a complaint filed Feb. 19 in a federal court in California.

  • February 20, 2025

    Washington City Employees Fired For Refusing COVID-19 Vaccination Appeal Dismissal

    SEATTLE — Several former city employees who were terminated after they refused to become vaccinated for COVID-19 filed a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking review of a decision of a Washington federal court, which granted the city and mayor’s motion to dismiss, having concluded that the employees were unable to establish that they experienced a violation of any fundamental rights that would create a cause of action against the city (Michael Brock, et al. v Bellingham, et al., No. 24-850, W.D. Wash.).

  • February 20, 2025

    3 Nonprofits Sue President, Federal Government Agencies Over DEI, Gender EOs

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three executive orders (EOs) issued by President Donald J. Trump on his first two days in office regarding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and gender identity are ultra vires presidential actions and violate the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), alleges a complaint filed Feb. 19 in a federal court in the District of Columbia by three nonprofits who help with access to employment, housing, education and health care and state that they have received stop-work orders or termination notices.

  • February 20, 2025

    5 Federal Workers’ Class Suit Alleges Info Access Is Largest Breach Since Watergate

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Federal officials’ decision to allow individuals from outside the U.S. government to access the “personal sensitive information” (PSI) of millions of federal workers “is the biggest breach of American trust by political actors since Watergate,” five federal employees allege in a class complaint filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia.

  • February 20, 2025

    Preliminary Approval Of $1.15M Lane Bryant Wage Class Settlement Denied

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal judge in California denied preliminary approval of a $1,150,000 class and Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) settlement in a case against a plus size clothing retailer, opining that the parties “artificially lowered” the potential value of the PAGA claim and failed to provide sufficient information for the court to determine whether preliminary approval was appropriate.

  • February 19, 2025

    Federal Judge Excludes Expert In Vaccine Mandate Case, Grants Summary Judgment

    PHILADELPHIA — An expert retained by a group of former employees at a school who were fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine cannot testify because the “misconstruction of the exhibits cited in his report undermine his reliability as it pertains to vaccine efficacy,” a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled, also granting summary judgment to the school.

  • February 19, 2025

    Removed Special Counsel Opposes High Court Application Challenging TRO

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An application to the U.S. Supreme Court by the federal government challenging a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the removal of Hampton Dellinger from his position as special counsel and requesting an immediate administrative stay should be denied as the government can’t show that the high court is likely to review and reverse a divided appellate panel’s ruling in the case, Dellinger argues in his Feb. 18 opposition.

  • February 19, 2025

    3 Complaints By Unions, Others Over Formation Of DOGE Consolidated

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia in Feb. 18 minute order consolidated three complaints alleging that the formation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).

  • February 18, 2025

    Split D.C. Circuit Dismisses Appeal Of TRO In Special Counsel’s Removal Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A split District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 15 dismissed for lack of jurisdiction a second appeal by the federal government and dismissed as moot the government’s emergency motion to stay a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the removal of Hampton Dellinger from his position as special counsel.

  • February 18, 2025

    TRO Denied In Federal Workers’ Privacy Suit Over OPM ‘Test’ Emails

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Federal workers suing under pseudonyms who accuse the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) of failing to conduct and publish a privacy impact assessment (PIA) before allegedly sending out “test” emails the workers claim are being used to collect information on them failed to show “that they are likely to incur some irreparable injury” without a temporary restraining order (TRO), a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled Feb. 17, denying a renewed TRO motion in the putative class case.

  • February 18, 2025

    Renewed TRO Request Denied In Case Over DOGE’s Access To DOL’s Private Info

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Despite “serious concerns about . . . privacy,” a federal judge in the District of Columbia on Feb. 14 denied a renewed motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) filed by five unions and one nonprofit think tank in a case over federal records being provided to personnel from the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), finding there was no showing that the “plaintiffs are entitled to the extraordinary relief of a” TRO and that the record indicates that DOGE is a federal agency that “may detail its employees to other agencies consistent with the Economy Act.”

  • February 18, 2025

    NLRB Acting General Counsel Rescinds Student-Athlete, Noncompete, Other Memoranda

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — National Labor Relations Board Acting General Counsel William B. Cowen filed a memorandum on Feb. 14 calling out the “backlog of cases” and rescinding more than two dozen memoranda, including memoranda regarding statutory rights of student-athletes under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), noncompete agreements that violate the NLRA and guidance on the propriety of mail ballot elections.

  • February 14, 2025

    TRO Extended, Amended Complaint Filed In Suit Seeking To Stop USAID Layoffs

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Feb. 13 filed an order amending and extending by a week a temporary restraining order (TRO) halting the placement of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees on administrative leave in a suit brought by two unions; an amended complaint was filed the same day adding Oxfam America as a plaintiff and a claim of ultra vires.

  • February 14, 2025

    Federal Government Appeals TRO In Special Counsel’s Lawsuit Over Removal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its second appeal in as many days, the federal government on Feb. 13 filed an emergency motion in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to stay a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the removal of Hampton Dellinger from his position as special counsel; Dellinger filed an opposition the same day arguing that like the first appeal, the appellate court lacks jurisdiction.

  • February 14, 2025

    USAID Workers Sue Elon Musk, DOGE For Constitutional Violations

    GREENBELT, Md. — The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its “de facto” administrator, Elon Musk, have exercised control over U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) systems and blocked USAID personnel access to those systems while “dismantling” the agency, 26 unnamed USAID workers allege in a Feb. 13 complaint filed in a federal court in Maryland in which they seek to enjoin “Musk and his DOGE subordinates from performing their significant and wide-ranging duties unless and until . . . Musk is properly appointed pursuant to the U.S. Constitution.”

  • February 14, 2025

    Former FLRA Chair Sues Replacement, Trump Alleging Improper Removal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The former chair of the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) filed a complaint against the new chair and President Donald J. Trump in a federal court in the District of Columbia on Feb. 13, alleging that her removal without a showing of cause violated the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations statute.

  • February 13, 2025

    Vaccination Exemption Suit Parties Seek Stay Pending Settlement Of Related Cases

    DETROIT — A former employee of a health insurance company alleging that she was wrongly denied a religious exemption from the company’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy and the company on Feb. 12 filed a joint request to stay and a notice from a Michigan federal judge presiding over discovery in several different but related cases ordering a 75-day stay in those cases and ordering that the parties file notifications of the stay order with all judges in the same federal district presiding over the related cases.

  • February 13, 2025

    Judge Dissolves TRO, Finds Unions Lack Standing In Federal Worker Resignation Suit

    BOSTON — A federal judge in Massachusetts on Feb. 12 dissolved a temporary restraining order (TRO) previously entered in a case brought by unions representing federal workers and challenging the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) “deferred resignation” program, finding the unions lack standing and the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the claims brought under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).