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Mealey's Employment

August 06, 2024
9th Circuit: Corporate Jet Pilots Exempt From FLSA Overtime Requirements

LAS VEGAS — Corporate jet pilots are both exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) overtime pay requirements as they are highly compensated, nonmanual laborers and are not eligible for pay during the time they spend waiting for flight requests as they have the ability to engage in personal activities, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority ruled, affirming a trial court’s judgment.
August 06, 2024
3rd Circuit: EEOC Email, Portal Upload Didn’t Start 90-Day Filing Period

PHILADELPHIA — An email from an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigator to an employee’s attorney regarding a forthcoming right-to-sue letter as well as the posting of the letter on the EEOC’s online portal did not start the 90-day clock for filing a complaint, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, vacating a trial court’s summary judgment ruling for the employer on the subsequent harassment and retaliation complaint.
August 05, 2024
9th Circuit Issues Mandate; Finds Triable Issues In Computer Operation FLSA Suit

PASADENA, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued the formal mandate in a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) case by Las Vegas call center employees three weeks after reversing summary judgment for the employer, finding that triable issues of material fact remain as to whether the time workers spend turning on and off their computers is de minimis or if that time should be compensated.
August 05, 2024
Former Employees Say Philadelphia Inquirer Liable For Breach Of Records

PHILADELPHIA — In a consolidated putative class complaint filed in a Pennsylvania federal court, three employees or former employees of the Philadelphia Inquirer LLC bring claims against the newspaper, saying it is liable for damages caused by a data breach the newspaper did not disclose to subscribers and employees for nearly a year.
August 05, 2024
Nashville, Worker Found By Jury To Have Been Subjected To Bias Agree To Dismissal

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County in Tennessee and a deputy fire marshal found by a federal jury in that state in May to have been subjected to age and gender discrimination and retaliation and $225,000 for gender bias agreed to dismissal with prejudice and termination of all pending motions including the deputy fire marshal’s June motion for $309,950 in attorney fees.
July 31, 2024
9th Circuit Reverses Order That Found Inmate Class Covered By Calif. Labor Code

SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed a trial court’s order which found that nonconvicted inmates who perform work for a private company without pay are covered by California’s Labor Code; the ruling came approximately three months after the California Supreme Court found in answering a question certified by the appellate panel that the inmates have no claim for minimum wages or overtime pay under current state law.
July 31, 2024
Jury Returns $22.1M Verdict For Former Wells Fargo Manager In Disability Bias Suit

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A federal jury in North Carolina returned a $22.1 million verdict for a former Wells Fargo Securities LLC manager who was selected for layoff after his request to continue working from home when coronavirus pandemic-related working restrictions were lifted was denied.
July 31, 2024
Inventor Of ‘Flamin’ Hot’ Cheetos Accuses PepsiCo Of Defamation, Discrimination

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. — A former PepsiCo Inc. executive who says he invented the ‘Flamin Hot’ variety of Cheetos snacks filed a complaint in California state court accusing his former employers at PepsiCo and FritoLay Inc. of violating California employment law and the unfair competition law (UCL) and defamation for allegedly casting doubt on his claimed inventorship after promoting his story for decades.
July 31, 2024
Worker Seeks Damages For Injury At Fracking Site, Also Claims Discrimination

OKLAHOMA CITY — A worker who alleges that he was injured while performing his duties on a hydraulic fracturing rig has sued a well services company and the fracking operator that owned the well where the incident took place, seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages.
July 29, 2024
Navy SEALs Settle COVID-19 Vaccine Case For Record Corrections, Policy Changes

FORT WORTH, Texas — A federal judge in Texas granted final approval of a class settlement in a case by Navy SEALs and members of the Navy challenging a COVID-19 vaccine mandate; the agreement will provide corrections to their personnel records, policy changes, public postings and attorney fees.
July 29, 2024
Pilots Seek Rehearing After 6th Circuit Finds Vaccine Claims Must Go To Arbitration

CINCINNATI — Kalitta Air LLC pilots filed a petition for rehearing en banc or panel rehearing after a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a trial court ruling that their putative class claims over the airline’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate must go through arbitration first as minor disputes pursuant to the Railway Labor Act (RLA) because the dispute requires interpretation of the terms of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
July 26, 2024
Judge Refuses To Toss Dispute Between Disney And Actor Over Social Media Posts

LOS ANGELES — A California federal court judge denied Disney’s motion to dismiss a wrongful discharge case filed by an actor who was fired from the Disney+ show The Mandalorian purportedly due to the posts she made on social media platforms, including X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram, finding that Disney failed to show that it engaged in expressive association that is protected under the First Amendment.
July 26, 2024
California Supreme Court Upholds Ballot Measure Concerning App-Based Drivers

SAN FRANCISCO — California Business and Professions Code Section 7451, which was enacted by voters through Proposition 22 and dictates that app-based drivers are independent contractors and thus not covered by the state’s workers’ compensation laws does not conflict with the state’s constitution as “the latter provision does not preclude the electorate from exercising its initiative power to legislate on matters affecting workers’ compensation,” a unanimous California Supreme Court ruled July 25.
July 26, 2024
Staffing Agency Settles EEOC Sex Harassment Claims For $500,000

FRESNO, Calif. — A staffing agency that placed workers at a Sunshine Raisin Corp. (doing business as National Raisin Co.) production facility agreed to pay $500,000 to settle sexual harassment and retaliation claims by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, according to a consent decree signed by a federal judge in California; the EEOC and National Raisin reached a $2 million settlement in March.
July 25, 2024
With ERISA Issue Pending, 3rd Circuit Lets Denial Stand In N.J. Temp Worker Row

PHILADELPHIA — A Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel upheld denial of a preliminary injunction request that sought to halt New Jersey’s Temporary Workers’ Bill of Rights (TWBR), saying in a July 24 ruling that that staffing industry groups “failed to show they were likely to succeed” on the merits of their initial claims.
July 25, 2024
9th Circuit Denies Rehearing In Appeal Over Class Scope Ambiguity Tolling

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc filed by Union Pacific Railroad Co. after a panel ruled while answering a question that it stated was one of first impression that 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.”
July 25, 2024
Magistrate Judge Partially Excludes Expert Testimony, Says Case Should Be Dismissed

DALLAS — A Texas federal magistrate judge found that an expert witness retained in a wrongful termination suit cannot offer opinions that are not based on facts in the record, partially granting a motion to exclude and in a separate order, recommended that the city be granted summary judgment and the case be dismissed with prejudice.
July 24, 2024
New Injunction Bid Based On ERISA Preemption Disputed In N.J. Temp Worker Row

CAMDEN, N.J. — Seeking a preliminary injunction to halt part of New Jersey’s Temporary Workers’ Bill of Rights (TWBR) under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, staffing industry groups tell a New Jersey federal court that the case law regulators cite is distinguishable.
July 24, 2024
3rd Circuit Determines Correct Analysis For Student-Athletes As Employees Dispute

PHILADELPHIA — A trial court erred by applying the Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc. test rather than “an economic realities analysis ground in common-law agency principles” when determining whether Division I student-athletes were employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority ruled, partially vacating the trial court’s ruling in an interlocutory appeal.
July 24, 2024
Federal Judge Dismisses Deceptive Trade Practices Claim In Data Breach Class Suit

NEW YORK — Union members who in a putative class complaint accuse their union of not keeping their personal information secure failed to sufficiently allege a claim under New York’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) as they did not allege that they “ever saw or relied upon the website’s privacy policy” and their “counsel conceded during oral argument that plaintiffs had not viewed it,” a federal judge in New York ruled, granting in part a motion to dismiss filed by UNITE HERE.
July 23, 2024
Unions, State Officials Respond To State Employees’ Union Fees Joint Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Union and officials from Oregon and California filed briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court on July 22 opposing a joint petition for a writ of certiorari filed by employees of those two states challenging union dues deductions and asking the justices to decide if unions “act under color of law” when they take “political campaign contributions from objecting employees’ wages.”
July 23, 2024
Union, School District, Attorney General Oppose Union Dues Deduction Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A union, a school district and the California attorney general separately filed oppositions on July 22 to a high school teacher’s petition for a writ of certiorari challenging the dismissal of his lawsuit over a six month delay in terminating his union membership as the request was made outside the open period and arguing that the ruling created “a conflict of authority.”
July 19, 2024
Retailer Settles EEOC Suit Over Employee’s COVID-19 Vaccine Religious Beliefs

PENSACOLA, Fla. — A furniture retailer will pay $110,000 to end a lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that accused the employer of failing to accommodate an employee’s request for religious exemption from a COVID-19 vaccine mandate and then fired her for failure to be vaccinated, according to a consent decree signed by a federal judge in Florida on July 18.
July 18, 2024
9th Circuit: Buddhist Temple Apprentice Falls Under Ministerial Exception

PASADENA, Calif. — A former work practice apprentice (WPA) at a California Buddhist temple, San Francisco Zen Center Inc., who received room and board and a small stipend in exchange for performing work duties as well as participating in meditations and performing ceremonial tasks fell with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution’s ministerial exception as he “had a ‘role in . . . carrying out [the Center’s] mission,’” a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled July 17, affirming a summary judgment ruling for the center in the man’s disability discrimination case.
July 18, 2024
Man, CVS Settle Claims Employment Interview Included Undisclosed AI Lie Detector

BOSTON — A man who claims that artificial intelligence tools used during a job interview constitute an unlawful lie detector test settled his individual state law claims against two CVS Health Corp. entities, according to a July 17 notice filed in Massachusetts federal court.