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

Mealey's Employment

August 23, 2024
NLRB Majority Ends Consent Orders Opposed By General Counsel, Charging Party

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Consent orders offered by a respondent to resolve an unfair labor practice case that are opposed by both the charging party and general counsel will no longer be accepted, a divided National Labor Relations Board ruled Aug. 22 in a case involving a Puerto Rico hospital and a union representing four units of employees.
August 23, 2024
Ohio Nursing And Rehab Will Pay $150,000 To End EEOC Bias, Retaliation Suit

COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio nursing and rehabilitation facility agreed to pay $150,000 and take other actions to end a complaint in a federal court in that state by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which accused the facility of wrongly firing an older male worker due a lack of available work while offering work to younger female workers.
August 22, 2024
4th Circuit Affirms Dismissal For ‘Pesky’ Standing Requirements In Medicare Row

RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s ruling dismissing a putative class action filed by the spouse of a decedent pursuant to the Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) Act regarding a workers’ compensation insurer’s alleged failure to reimburse Medicare for the decedent’s mesothelioma-related treatment, finding that though the requirements of standing “are often pesky,” the spouse lacked standing in this case.
August 22, 2024
FTC’s New Noncompete Rule Set Aside By Federal Judge In Texas

DALLAS — The Federal Trade Commission lacks the statutory authority to issue a new rule largely banning noncompete agreements, a federal judge in Texas ruled, setting aside the rule and directing that it “shall not be enforced or otherwise take effect on September 4, 2024, or thereafter.”
August 20, 2024
Wholesaler Seeks Rehearing After 1st Circuit Finds Sales Reps Were Misclassified

BOSTON — An industrial product wholesaler filed a petition for rehearing en banc after a First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a trial court’s ruling that the company’s inside sales representatives (ISRs) were misclassified as exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
August 20, 2024
Cabbie Who Quit Because Of COVID-19 Lack Of Fares May Collect CARES Act Benefits

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel of a District of Columbia appeals court reversed the decision of an administrative law judge (ALJ) denying pandemic unemployment assistance (PUA) benefits provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to a taxi driver who claimed benefits due to a sharp decline in fares during the COVID-19 pandemic that rendered him unable to pay for his taxi and equipment.
August 20, 2024
Teacher Awarded $1.1M On Retaliation, Defamation Claims In Pandemic Speech Case

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A Connecticut teacher who alleged that she was subjected to retaliation and defamation after making public comments regarding the need for a safety plan during the coronavirus pandemic and stating on social media that there had been an unreported case of COVID-19 in her school was awarded $1.1 million by a federal jury in her state.
August 20, 2024
Pennsylvania Law Firm Seeks COVID-19 Employee Retention Credits It Says It Is Owed

PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania law firm filed suit against the federal government seeking a tax refund of $790,318.08 for 2020 and 2021, claiming that it is entitled to employee retention tax credits as provided for by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, along with statutory interest and attorney fees, for wage payments it paid to its employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
August 19, 2024
Dave Ramsey Worker’s Pandemic Religious Bias Claims Reinstated By 6th Circuit

CINCINNATI — A former employee of Dave Ramsey and his company, Lampo Group LLC, who alleges that the company failed to take precautions against the spread of COVID-19 during the initial days of the coronavirus pandemic may proceed with his religious bias claims but failed to meet Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b)’s heightened pleading requirements for his common-law fraud claim, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, partially reversing a trial court’s dismissal of all of the employee’s claims.
August 16, 2024
Ex-Employee Denied Vaccination Exemption Amends Religious Discrimination Complaint

DETROIT — A former employee of a health insurance company filed an amended complaint alleging that she was wrongly denied a religious exemption from the company’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy after a Michigan federal court determined that the proposed amended complaint alleged sufficient facts to support her claims and denied as moot the company’s motion for judgment on the pleadings.
August 16, 2024
6th Circuit In Union Spat Affirms President’s Right To Remove NLRB General Counsel

CINCINNATI — The president has the authority at-will to remove and replace the National Labor Relations Board general counsel, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, denying an employer’s petition for review and granting the NLRB’s cross-application for enforcement of its order which found that the employer must turn over subcontracting and bargaining employee information to the union and that a union member violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by striking another employee with a picketing sign and spitting in his face.
August 14, 2024
Employer To U.S. High Court: Preponderance Of Evidence May Prove FLSA Exemption

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The default standard of proof in Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) exemption cases is “mere preponderance of evidence,” a food distributor and its CEO argue in a petitioner brief filed Aug. 13 in the U.S. Supreme Court.
August 14, 2024
Former College Baseball Player Hits NCAA With Class Suit Over Scholarship Limits

DENVER — The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) bylaw limiting the number of baseball and other sports scholarships a school may offer constitutes “wage fixing” and violates the Sherman Act, a former college baseball player alleges in his putative class complaint filed in a federal court in Colorado.
August 13, 2024
Ex-Employee’s COVID-Related Discrimination Suit Tossed For Not Filing EEOC Claim

MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota federal judge granted the dismissal motion of a hospital in a former employee’s lawsuit alleging religious discrimination and other violations in terminating her after she accepted a religious exemption from COVID-19 vaccination but then refused to wear an N95 mask as required by hospital policy, ruling that the employee failed to exhaust her administrative remedies and filed her lawsuit too late.
August 12, 2024
Reconsideration Of Attorney Fees Denied In Jack In The Box Workers’ Wage Suit

PORTLAND, Ore. — A federal judge in Oregon denied a motion by Jack in the Box Inc. workers to reconsider an April opinion, which partially granted and partially denied motions for attorney fees and costs by both sides in a wage-and-hour suit brought by a class of workers who saw some success with their claims, and apply a prime rate enhancement, opining that there was no showing of clear error or that the “decision was manifestly unjust.”
August 08, 2024
9th Circuit Denies Rehearing En Banc After Race Bias Ruling For Uber

SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel unanimously denied a petition for rehearing en banc and no judge of the full court requested a vote following a June opinion in a race bias class complaint against Uber Technologies Inc. in which the panel determined that a survey of Uber drivers conducted by attorneys representing a former driver who brought the complaint “fail[ed] to provide any plausible basis for finding a ‘disproportionately adverse effect on minorities.’”
August 08, 2024
California Laundry Facility Pays $1.1M To Settle EEOC Hiring Discrimination Claims

LOS ANGELES — A California laundry facility’s $1.1 million settlement of discriminatory hiring claims by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and approved by a federal judge in California brings the total settlement for a class of workers who the EEOC said were not hired based on their race and national origin or were subjected to segregated jobs based on their gender to $3.3 million as the temporary staffing agency used by the laundry facility settled the claims against it in April.
August 08, 2024
Staffing Agency’s $875,000 Ends EEOC Claims It Permitted Clients’ Biased Requests

SEATTLE — A Washington-based staffing agency will pay $875,000 to end a complaint by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that it complied with clients’ requests for male temporary workers instead of rejecting them as unlawful.
August 07, 2024
$9.39M White Castle Finger Scan Class Settlement Granted Final Approval

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois granted final approval to a $9,394,440 settlement to be paid by White Castle System Inc. to end a class complaint by an employee who alleged that the fast food company’s finger scan policy violated the Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
August 07, 2024
Memo On Student-Workers’ Rights Under NLRA, Privacy Rights Issued By NLRB

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Labor Relations Board general counsel issued a memo on Aug. 6 clarifying the obligations of colleges and universities under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) regarding the disclosure of student-worker information to labor unions and students’ privacy rights.
August 07, 2024
Wash. Judge Issues Clarifying Order After 3 Post-Verdict Orders In Wage Class Suit

SEATTLE — A Washington judge on Aug. 6 clarified one of three post-verdict orders issued July 31 following an April $98 million jury verdict for health care workers in a wage and hour class suit and a May judgment of more than $229 million and denied supplemental judgment pending resolution of the total costs awarded.
August 07, 2024
D.C. Circuit Rules That Pro Se Pleading Leniency Doesn’t Apply To Attorney

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The pleading leniency for pro se litigants does not extend to attorneys, the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in a retaliation case filed by a former Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) attorney, affirming the trial court’s ruling dismissing the attorney’s suit.
August 07, 2024
Connecticut Judge: Board Exclusion Bars Coverage For Disability Discrimination Suit

HARTFORD, Conn. — A Connecticut judge granted summary judgment in favor of an insurer in a Connecticut town’s lawsuit seeking coverage for an underlying disability discrimination action brought by a former member of the town’s board of education, finding that the policy board exclusion bars Public Entity Management Liability and Public Entity Employment-Related Practices Liability coverage and the discrimination and employment-related practices exclusions bar the policy’s commercial general liability coverage.
August 07, 2024
Preliminary Injunction Made Permanent In Florida DEI Training Law Case

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida converted to a permanent statewide injunction a two-year-old preliminary injunction that barred the enforcement of a Florida law that bans certain mandatory workplace training promoting various concepts on race and gender discrimination.
August 06, 2024
Calif. High Court: Lyft Driver Can’t Intervene In PAGA Action Of Another To Object

SAN FRANCISCO — One rideshare driver who filed a lawsuit against Lyft Inc. under California’s Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) for alleged wage violations can’t intervene in an ongoing PAGA action of another driver asserting similar claims to object to a proposed settlement as that “would be inconsistent with the scheme the Legislature enacted,” a divided California Supreme Court ruled.