Mealey's Employment
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June 18, 2024
Federal Judge: EEOC Exceeded Authority With Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Rule
LAKE CHARLES, La. — One business day after an Arkansas federal judge ruled that Tennessee and 16 other states lack standing to sue the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission challenging the portions of regulations “to carry out” the Pregnancy Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) that deal with abortion, a federal judge in Louisiana on June 17 partially granted preliminary injunction motions by Louisiana and Mississippi and several Catholic entities postponing the effective date of the EEOC’s final rule that implements and interprets the PWFA.
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June 18, 2024
$2.5M Wage-And-Hour Settlement For Arizona Chauffeurs Preliminarily OK’d
PHOENIX — A federal judge in Arizona granted preliminary approval of a $2.5 million class settlement between employers and chauffer drivers who say that they were improperly denied minimum, straight and overtime wages.
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June 17, 2024
9th Circuit: Class Scope Ambiguity ‘Should Be Resolved In Favor Of Tolling’
SAN FRANCISCO — Where a class definition is narrowed, any dispute or ambiguity regarding the applicability to certain plaintiffs “should be resolved in favor of tolling so that bystander members of the class need not rush to file separate actions to protect their rights,” the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled June 14, answering a question the panel stated was one of first impression.
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June 17, 2024
U.S. Supreme Court Grants Petition Seeking Standard Of Proof For FLSA Exemptions
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A petition for a writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court justices to decide whether the standard of proof for an exemption to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) “is a mere preponderance of the evidence” or “clear and convincing evidence” was granted June 17 (E.M.D. Sales, Inc., et al. v. Faustino Sanchez Carrera, et al., No. 23-217, U.S. Sup.).
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June 13, 2024
U.S. High Court Finds Winter Test Appropriate For NLRB Injunctive Relief
WASHINGTON, D.C. — District Courts must apply the four-factor test in Winter v. Nat. Res. Def. Council when considering a preliminary injunction request by the National Labor Relations Board under Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 13 in an appeal by Starbucks Corp.; however, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson opined in a partial dissent that the majority’s ruling ignored the second step in the two-part inquiry in Hecht Co. v. Bowles.
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June 12, 2024
5th Circuit Grants Airline Stay Of ‘Religious-Liberty Training’ Pending Appeal
NEW ORLEANS — An order that Southwest Airlines Co. lawyers attend “religious-liberty training” as a sanction in a flight attendant’s case over her firing for online speech “likely exceeded the district court’s civil contempt authority,” a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, granting Southwest’s motion for a stay pending appeal.
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June 12, 2024
Company Says Worker Fails To Plead Discrimination Case As To Its Vaccination Policy
PORTLAND, Ore. — In a lawsuit by a former employee alleging that her employer failed to make a good faith effort to accommodate her religious beliefs and medical disability, both of which led her to decline a company-mandated COVID-19 vaccination, which caused her dismissal, the employer moved an Oregon federal court for judgment on the pleadings, contending that the employee failed to plead facts sufficient to show that she held a bona fide religious belief that conflicted with the employer’s vaccination policy or that she was disabled within the meaning of state or federal law.
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June 12, 2024
Los Angeles Jury Awards Former UCLA Doctor $14M In Gender Bias Suit Retrial
LOS ANGELES — A former University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center doctor whose previous award of more than $13 million for gender bias and retaliation claims was reversed by an appellate panel that found that “grave errors” were made during the jury trial was awarded $14 million in damages by a jury following the retrial.
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June 12, 2024
9th Circuit Certifies Public Worker Military Leave Question To Wash. High Court
SEATTLE — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued an order asking the Washington Supreme Court to decide whether public employees are entitled to paid military leave under that state’s law when the worker is not “scheduled to work” based on the military leave of absence.
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June 11, 2024
En Banc 9th Circuit Upholds Dismissal Of Gig Workers’ Suit Over Calif. Status Law
SAN FRANCISCO — A California law that extended the application of the “ABC test” for determining worker status and exempted certain occupations was created for “plausible reasons,” the en banc Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled June 10, upholding a trial court’s dismissal of a complaint brought by two gig workers and the operators of two mobile applications that provide delivery and rideshare services.
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June 11, 2024
6th Circuit Affirms NLRB’s Jurisdiction In Audit Row Involving Multiemployer Funds
CINCINNATI — In an unpublished opinion that drew a partial dissent, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed summary judgment against multiemployer trust funds that sought to compel an employer to submit to an audit under the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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June 11, 2024
Former Walgreens Worker Asks U.S. High Court To Consider FMLA Questions
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court justices should decide whether 29 U.S. Code Section 2615(a)(1) prohibits retaliation for exercising rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and, if it does, the appropriate standard for proving such a claim, a former Walgreen Co. employee argues in a petition for a writ of certiorari filed after the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the proper standard for such claims is the but-for causation.
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June 10, 2024
Rehearing Denied After 4th Circuit Vacates Wage Ruling For Jailed Workers
RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing filed by a Maryland county after a panel cleared the way for a former detainee’s collective and class wage-and-hour claims to proceed after determining that the incorrect legal standards were used when granting the county summary judgment.
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June 07, 2024
Preliminary Injunction Upheld In Noncompete Suit Against Former Cigna Executive
ST. LOUIS — A trial court’s preliminary injunction in a case by Cigna Corp. seeking to enforce a noncompete agreement with a former executive was not an abuse of discretion as Missouri law was correctly interpreted and there was no clear error in the factual findings, an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, noting in part that the company where the executive went was Cigna’s “largest direct competitor.”
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June 06, 2024
Judge: Amazon Immune From Workers’ Temperature Scan Class Suit Under PREP Act
CHICAGO — A warehouse worker’s putative class complaint accusing her employer of violating Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by scanning workers’ temperatures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 was terminated by a federal magistrate judge in Illinois who found that the employer was entitled to statutory immunity based on the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act).
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June 06, 2024
University Of The Arts Employees File WARN Act Class Suit Following Closure
PHILADELPHIA — Nine employees of a Philadelphia university that announced May 31 that it would be closing its doors one week later filed a class complaint in a federal court in Pennsylvania seeking 60 days of pay and Employee Retirement Income Security Act benefits, alleging that the school violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act).
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June 05, 2024
6th Circuit Vacates Health Care Provider’s $130,000 Vaccine Mandate Settlement
CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, in considering the second appeal in a settled case by employees over a health care provider’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy, vacated the settlement approval, finding that no named plaintiff in the case had standing as to the health care provider’s affiliates added in the settlement, resulting in the trial court lacking jurisdiction.
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June 05, 2024
Petition Seeks Ruling On Legal Test For Employment Bias Circumstantial Evidence
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (FDJJ) asks the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green and its progeny provide the correct legal test for proving employment discrimination based on circumstantial evidence or whether “the less-rigorous ‘convincing mosaic’ theory” may be used.
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June 04, 2024
Navy SEALs Seek Preliminary Class Settlement Approval In COVID-19 Vaccine Case
FORT WORTH, Texas — Navy SEALs and members of the Navy who sued after they were denied religious exemptions from the Navy’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement filed a motion in a federal court in Texas seeking preliminary approval of a class settlement that will provide corrections to their personnel records, policy changes, public postings and attorney fees.
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June 04, 2024
U.S. Supreme Court Denies Oil Company’s Donning, Doffing Petition
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 3 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by an oil company asking the justices to decide whether “donning and doffing generic protective clothing” is compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
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June 03, 2024
Chamber Of Commerce’s Suit Over FTC’s Noncompete Rule Dismissed After Intervention
TYLER, Texas — A complaint by the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America and two other groups challenging the Federal Trade Commission’s new rule banning noncompete agreements was dismissed without prejudice by a federal judge in Texas after the Chamber and two other plaintiffs notified the court that they successfully intervened in the first-filed case filed in another federal court in the same state.
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June 03, 2024
Teacher Asks 7th Circuit To Again Review Transgender Student Name Case
INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana teacher seeking a religious accommodation from using transgender students’ first names filed a notice of appeal after a federal judge in that state granted summary judgment to the teacher’s employer, finding that the requested accommodation placed the school district at risk for litigation and withdrawn funding and “disrupted” its business.
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June 03, 2024
DOL Accuses Hyundai, Partners Of Child Labor Violations In U.S. Facilities
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A Hyundai manufacturing plant and two partners are violating the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) child labor laws, the U.S. Department of Labor alleges in a complaint filed in a federal court in Alabama after finding that a 13-year-old worked up to 60 hours per week on an Alabama assembly line rather than attending school.
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May 31, 2024
COMMENTARY: "Should I Stay Or Should I Go?”: Supreme Court Resolves FAA Circuit Split On Staying Arbitration
By Ed Mullins, James P. Duffy IV, Niyati Ahuja and Wardah A. Bari
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May 29, 2024
COMMENTARY: U.S. Supreme Court Limits Appeals From Decisions Enforcing Arbitration Agreements
By David N. Cinotti