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Mealey's Employment

November 01, 2024
Calif. Jury: Age Of Pool Company Employee Was Not ‘Substantial’ Reason For Firing

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — A California jury returned a verdict for a pool and spa company, finding that the age of a fired worker, 62, was not “a substantial motivating reason” for his termination.
October 30, 2024
Interlocutory Appeal Filed After Dismissal Ruling In NYC Workers’ Vaccine Case

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — New York City workers who filed a putative class lawsuit after they were placed on leave for refusing a COVID-19 vaccine or claim that they were “coerced” into getting the vaccine filed a notice of interlocutory appeal after a federal judge in New York largely dismissed their claims.
October 29, 2024
Religious Bias Claims By 30 Dismissed In Mass Action Over Airline’s Vaccine Mandate

HONOLULU, Hawaii — A federal judge in Hawaii granted an airline’s motion to partially dismiss discrimination claims made by workers in a mass action filed after a vaccine policy was implemented in August 2021 in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
October 29, 2024
En Banc 5th Circuit Majority: Ordering Deletion Of Union Tweet Violated Constitution

NEW ORLEANS — A post on social media by the CEO of Telsa Inc. regarding the loss of stock options if workers unionized did not violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), a split en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in a per curiam opinion, vacating an order by the National Labor Relations Board and remanding for the NLRB to reconsider whether Tesla’s firing of a union-supporting worker violated the NLRA as the decisionmaker was not shown to have anti-union animus.
October 29, 2024
Initial OK Given To $525,000 Settlement Of Philadelphia Inquirer Data Breach Suit

PHILADELPHIA — Granting an unopposed motion to preliminarily approve the settlement of a putative class action brought by past and present employees against the Philadelphia Inquirer over a 2023 data breach, a Pennsylvania federal judge deemed the proposed agreement, which includes a $525,000 settlement fund, to be “fair, reasonable and adequate.”
October 29, 2024
6th Circuit Denies Rehearing Sought By Contractor After At-Will Removal Ruling

CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a road construction contractor’s petition for rehearing en banc filed after the panel ruled that the U.S. president has the authority at will to remove and replace the National Labor Relations Board general counsel.
October 29, 2024
Without Standing, 3rd Circuit Says Fired Employees’ Whistleblower Dispute Is Moot

PHILADELPHIA — A majority of a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that two former Exxon Mobil Corp. employees who allege that they were fired in violation of federal whistleblower protection laws failed to establish a mootness exception to maintain standing after they invoked the kick-out provision in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), which led to an administrative law judge dismissing the administrative proceedings, but one judge dissented, questioning whether any district court has the jurisdiction to enforce noncompliance of a reinstatement order.
October 28, 2024
Insurer: No Employment Practices Liability Coverage Owed For 2 Class Actions

SEATTLE — An insurer filed suit in a Washington federal court seeking a declaration as to employment practices liability coverage for two underlying putative class actions alleging that its insureds violated state law requiring employers to disclose the range in salary for posted job openings.
October 24, 2024
Chauffeurs Appeal 6 Orders After $2.5M Wage Settlement Granted Final Approval

PHOENIX — Chauffeur drivers who brought a class and collective action wage-and-hour complaint in a federal court in Arizona filed a revised and corrected notice of appeal as to six 2023 orders; the filing came a month after the drivers’ $2.5 million settlement with their employers was granted final approval.
October 22, 2024
FTC Files Notice Of Appeal After Judge Sets Aside FTC’s New Noncompete Rule

DALLAS — The Federal Trade Commission filed a notice of appeal after a federal judge in Texas ruled that the FTC lacks the statutory authority to issue a new rule largely banning noncompete agreements and set aside the rule that was set to take effect on Sept. 4.
October 22, 2024
Volvo Opposes Army Reservist’s Disability-Related U.S. High Court Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court should deny a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a former Volvo Group North America LLC employee and Army reservist in a case asserting discrimination as the petitioner’s premises on which she based her arguments are incorrect and her reliance on Torres v. Texas Dep’t of Public Safety “is misplaced,” Volvo argues in its opposition.
October 22, 2024
Iowa Federal Judge Denies Motion To Exclude Expert In FLSA Bench Trial

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — An Iowa federal judge said that because a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) dispute will be resolved through a bench trial, excluding certain testimony from an expert witness retained to opine on damages is unnecessary.
October 21, 2024
ERISA Fight Over Illinois Temp Worker Provision Returns To District Court

CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals immediately granted an Oct. 18 motion to voluntarily dismiss an interlocutory Employee Retirement Income Security Act appeal that Illinois Department of Labor Director Jane R. Flanagan said was prompted by the latest amendment to the Illinois Day and Temporary Labor Services Act (DTLSA) and unopposed.
October 17, 2024
U.S. High Court Won’t Review Dismissal Of Gig Workers’ Suit Over Calif. Status Law

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by gig workers and the operators of two mobile applications that provide delivery and rideshare services asking the justices to decide whether a case challenging a California law that extended the application of the “ABC test” for determining worker status and exempted certain occupations may be dismissed for failure to state a claim “based on hypothetical facts not pleaded in the complaint.”
October 16, 2024
Ex-Employee Whose COVID- Related Suit Was Tossed For Not Filing With EEOC Appeals

MINNEAPOLIS — A former hospital employee who accepted a religious exemption from COVID-19 vaccination but was then terminated for refusing to wear an N95 mask as required by hospital policy filed a notice of appeal on Oct. 15 to the Eight Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of a Minnesota federal judge’s order dismissing the employee’s religious discrimination lawsuit for failure to exhaust her administrative remedies.
October 15, 2024
10th Circuit: Untimely Removal Of Class Wage Suit Against Wendy’s Supports Remand

DENVER — A fast food franchisor’s removal of a wage-and-hour complaint to federal court following class certification was untimely, a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, opining that the company was given notice that the Class Action Fairness Act’s (CAFA) $5 million threshold was met in two letters sent months earlier demanding unpaid wages.
October 15, 2024
Researcher’s Contract Claims Over Penn’s Patent Policy Mostly Survive Dismissal

PHILADELPHIA — A former University of Pennsylvania (Penn) employee’s claims over royalties to which she is purportedly entitled under the university’s patent policy because of her work on a gene therapy patent were largely deemed adequately alleged by a Pennsylvania federal judge, who found that additional information and discovery were necessary to further consider the university's statute of limitations and sufficiency of pleadings arguments.
October 14, 2024
Florida Resort Pays $100,000 To End EEOC’s Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Case

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida hotel and resort will pay $100,000 to end a complaint by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging violations of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when it terminated a worker shortly after she requested leave to recover and grieve following a stillbirth during the fifth month of her pregnancy, according to a consent decree approved by a federal judge on Oct. 11.
October 14, 2024
Exotic Dancer Dismisses Race Bias Claims After Employer Settles

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — An exotic dancer whose race bias claims against her Alabama employer were reinstated by the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in November 2023 filed along with her employer in a federal court in Alabama a joint stipulation of dismissal with prejudice after “a full and final settlement [was] effectuated.”
October 09, 2024
7th Circuit Determines Showing For Class Certification Under Rule 23(c)(4)

CHICAGO — Certifying a class under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(c)(4) requires both a showing that “common questions predominate” as to the certified issues and a showing that certification of those issues is “the most practical and efficient way to resolve the litigation,” a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a trial court’s decertification of a Rule 23(c)(4) class of workers in a wage-and-hour dispute.
October 09, 2024
Labor Union Denied Early Appeal Of Partial Dismissal In Data Breach Suit

NEW YORK — Deeming a labor union’s reading of controlling case law to be “plainly wrong,” a New York federal judge declined to certify for interlocutory appeal his previous ruling that permitted most of the plaintiff union members’ claims related to a 2023 data breach to proceed.
October 09, 2024
EEOC Complaint Alleges Wholesale Nursery Violated Pregnant Workers Fairness Act

BALTIMORE — A Maryland-based wholesale nursery violated the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title I of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 when it refused to allow a worker to return to her job following maternity leave, telling her that no work was available while hiring other new, nonpregnant employees, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleges in a complaint filed in a federal court in Maryland.
October 08, 2024
Post-Trial Briefing Extension Granted After $3.9M Verdict For Fired University Dean

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — A federal judge in Pennsylvania granted an extension to a Pennsylvania university and others for a filing brief in support of post-trial motions after a jury returned a verdict of more than $3.9 million verdict for a former university dean who alleged that he was fired for helping another worker report sexual harassment by the university president.
October 08, 2024
U.S. High Court Passes On State Employees’ Union Fees Joint Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A petition for a writ of certiorari filed by employees of Oregon and California 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” was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 7.
October 08, 2024
High School Teacher’s Union Dues Deduction Petition Denied By U.S. Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a high school teacher following the dismissal of his lawsuit over a six-month delay in terminating his union membership as the request was made outside the open period was denied Oct. 7 by the U.S. Supreme Court.