Mealey's Employment : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Employment

May 17, 2024
Doctor’s Extortion Case Settled, Dismissed After New Trial Order Upheld

PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania dismissed with prejudice a Philadelphia doctor’s case against his former employer alleging extortion; the one-page order was filed six days after the judge denied the doctor’s motion to vacate a March decision granting judgment as a matter of law on the doctor’s tortious interference with contractual relations claims and ordering a new trial on the doctor’s Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 claim in the case in which the doctor alleges that he was forced out of his job after a female colleague initiated sexual intercourse and then later used the encounter to try to extort him.
May 16, 2024
U.S. High Court: With Request, Arbitrable Dispute Must Be Stayed, Not Dismissed

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A case involving an arbitrable dispute must be stayed and not dismissed pending arbitration where a party has requested a stay, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled May 16 in a case brought by delivery drivers against the individual owners and managers of Intelliserve and related corporate entities (together, Intelliserve).
May 16, 2024
Unanimous Supreme Court Finds MSPB Appeal Deadline Is Not Jurisdictional

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A 60-day deadline for petitioning for review of decisions by the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) is not jurisdictional, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled May 16 in an appeal by a former U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) employee.
May 16, 2024
Chicken Growers’ Class Certified In Compensation Suppression Case

MUSKOGEE, Okla. — A federal judge in Oklahoma granted certification of a nationwide class of growers who accuse poultry processors of conspiring to suppress their compensation in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act and Section 202 of the Packers and Stockyards Act and denied a motion by Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. (PPC), the only defendant remaining after other companies settled the claims against them, to exclude opinions by the growers’ expert.
May 15, 2024
Judge: Office Workers Stuck With Workers’ Compensation In Asbestos Suit

SAN DIEGO — The state’s workers’ compensation system is the sole remedy for workers allegedly exposed to asbestos in their office space because while the defendants may have had knowledge that the building contained asbestos requiring abatement, that is not the same level of knowledge required for the fraudulent concealment of injury exception, a California judge said in granting a motion for summary judgment on May 14.
May 14, 2024
Retaliation, Other ERISA Claims Decided For Last Defendants In QDRO Dispute

SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge granted summary judgment for an employer and its 401(k) plan on retaliation and all other remaining claims in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act dispute centering on a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO), closing the case.
May 14, 2024
Casino Operator Does Not Enjoy Tribal Immunity In Employment Discrimination Case

PHOENIX — A company that manages a tribal casino is not entitled to tribal sovereign immunity from claims of discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination brought by five former employees who were terminated after allegedly colluding with cheating gamblers on electronic craps games because the company is not an arm of the tribe, an Arizona federal judge held in denying the company’s motion to dismiss.
May 13, 2024
U.S. High Court Won’t Review Massachusetts Prevailing Wage Act Ruling

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 13 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by an employer after Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in a Massachusetts Prevailing Wage Act case that there was no showing that the state law was preempted by Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act of 1995 (ICCTA), as amended.
May 10, 2024
Vacating New Trial Order Denied As Doctor, Hospital Seek To Settle Extortion Case

PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania on May 9 denied a Philadelphia doctor’s motion to vacate a March decision granting judgment as a matter of law on the doctor’s tortious interference with contractual relations claims and ordering a new trial on the doctor’s Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 claim in the case in which the doctor alleges that he was forced out of his job after a female colleague initiated sexual intercourse and then later used the encounter to try and extort him; the one-page order was filed as the parties continue settlement talks.
May 10, 2024
Air Force, Space Force Members Appeal Dismissal Of Vaccine Mandate Class Case

CINCINNATI — Members of the U.S. Air Force and Space Force who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine for religious reasons, filed a class complaint challenging the vaccine mandate and were granted a classwide preliminary injunction that was vacated as moot in December by the U.S. Supreme Court filed a notice of appeal after a federal judge in Ohio dismissed their case as moot.
May 09, 2024
Split 4th Circuit Panel: Gay Catholic School Teacher Is ‘Ministerial’

RICHMOND, Va. — A Catholic high school teacher who was not invited back to work due to his engagement to his same-sex partner served in a role that qualified as “ministerial” as he “‘serve[d] as a messenger or teacher of the faith’ covered by the ministerial exception,” a divided Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled May 8, reversing a trial court’s summary judgment ruling for the teacher despite the school and other defendants waiving as a defense the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution’s “ministerial exception.”
May 09, 2024
Union Supports NLRB’s Argument For Bargaining Without Election Framework

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should enforce a decision by the National Labor Relations Board upholding bargaining orders without an election pursuant to its new standard as that standard is a variation of the rule established in Joy Silk Mills, Inc. that was in place for at least two decades and it “calls for the imposition of a bargaining order only if an employer commits ULPs [unfair labor practices] that would otherwise require setting aside the election,” the International Brotherhood of Teamsters argues as an intervenor and supporting the position of the NLRB.
May 08, 2024
Jury Finds Tennis Association, Affiliate Liable For Coach’s Sexual Misconduct

ORLANDO, Fla. — The United States Tennis Association Inc. (USTA) and its affiliate, USTA Player Development Inc. (USTA PD) must pay a tennis player $9 million for damages associated with sexual misconduct by a coach pursuant to two verdicts returned by a federal jury in Florida, a federal judge in that state said in an order issued May 7.
May 08, 2024
U.S. To High Court: 4th Circuit Adopted Wrong Standard Of Proof For FLSA Exemptions

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court should summarily reverse the judgment by the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upholding overtime pay and liquidated damages for sales representatives who alleged that they were misclassified as exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) as “outside salesm[e]n” as the appellate panel’s “adoption of the clear-and-convincing-evidence standard of proof for FLSA exemptions is unreasoned and inconsistent with” Supreme Court precedent, the United States argues in a May 7 amicus curiae brief responding to a Dec. 11 invitation to file a brief extended by the high court.
May 08, 2024
Poultry Processors Pay $5.1M In Wages, Damages For Illegally Employing Minors

LOS ANGELES — California poultry processors and distributors will pay $5.1 million in wages, damages and penalties for illegally employing minors in jobs using sharp knives to debone chickens in violation of federal child labor regulations, according to a consent judgment and permanent injunction signed by a federal judge in California.
May 08, 2024
District Granted Summary Judgment In Teacher’s Case Over Transgender Student’s Name

INDIANAPOLIS — A federal judge in Indiana denied summary judgment to a teacher and granted a cross-motion for summary judgment filed by the school district that employs the teacher in a dispute over the teacher’s request for religious accommodation from using transgender students’ first names, finding that the requested accommodation of using students’ last names only placed the school district at risk for litigation and withdrawn funding and caused “harm and disruption to the school’s business.”
May 07, 2024
Chamber Of Commerce’s Suit Over FTC’s Noncompete Rule Stayed Due To Earlier Case

TYLER, Texas — A federal judge in Texas pursuant to the first-to-file doctrine stayed a lawsuit 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, stating that the groups should notify the court if their claims are accepted through plaintiffs intervention or addition as parties in a similar complaint filed in another federal court in the same state one day earlier.
May 07, 2024
Nebraska Federal Judge Agrees To Limit Testimony In Trade Secrets Dispute

OMAHA, Neb. — A Nebraska federal judge rejected arguments from four former employees of an agricultural product distributor who are being sued for stealing trade secrets and confidential information when they resigned to work for a competitor that the company failed to properly disclose expert witnesses but agreed to limit their testimony.
May 07, 2024
Illinois School District Will Pay More Than $200,000 To End EEOC Age Bias Suit

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois issued an opinion and order approving a consent decree between an Illinois school district and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under which the district will pay $206,301 to end claims that it limited annual pay increases of teachers older than 45 to avoid a pension-contribution surcharge pursuant to a provision in a collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
May 07, 2024
Tech Firm Must Provide Records In Age Discrimination, Retaliation Lawsuit

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge largely granted a plaintiff’s motion to compel further discovery responses from his former employer, finding that “liberal civil discovery rules” were appropriate to permit the plaintiff to find support for his allegations of a companywide practice of discrimination, as well as the claim that he was retaliated against for reporting illegal behavior by a company executive.
May 06, 2024
Minnesota Attorney General: 3M Will Pay Nearly $1M For Unauthorized Pay Deductions

ST. PAUL, Minn. — 3M Co. will pay more than $960,000 in back wages to 1,690 employees to end claims that it deducted pay without prior consent from employees to correct overpayments for things such as COVID-19 pandemic-related absences, incorrect calculations of salary base pay and incorrect overtime calculations, the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office announced.
May 06, 2024
3rd Circuit: Chinese Software Engineer May Proceed With Bias, Retaliation Claims

PHILADELPHIA — A Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel partially vacated a trial court’s summary judgment ruling for a software company accused of bias and retaliation by a former software engineer, finding that the lower court misapplied the McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green burden shifting test and ignored evidence that was favorable to the engineer.
May 03, 2024
Advocacy Group Appeals Standing Ruling In Suit Over Tipped Pay

OAKLAND, Calif. — An advocacy organization whose focus is on eliminating subminimum cash wages filed a notice of appeal on May 2 in a federal court in California after a judge denied its motion for leave to file a motion for reconsideration of a March order dismissing its wage case against Darden Restaurants Inc. for a lack of statutory standing.
May 03, 2024
Judge Lifts Limited Stay In Employment Group’s Suit After ACA Rule Reveal

FARGO, N.D. — A federal judge in North Dakota lifted a limited stay after federal defendants in a lawsuit over Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) Section 1557 filed notice that they issued a final rule governing the handling of the law’s provision prohibiting discrimination in health care.
May 03, 2024
COVID-19 Contact Tracing Staffing Company Will Pay $2.7M To Settle Privacy Claims

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A company hired by the Pennsylvania Department of Health to provide staffing for COVID-19 contact tracing will pay $2.7 million to settle claims pending in a federal court in Pennsylvania that it failed to implement sufficient cybersecurity measures to protect collected data, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.