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

Mealey's Employment

February 18, 2025
Split D.C. Circuit Dismisses Appeal Of TRO In Special Counsel’s Removal Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A split District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 15 dismissed for lack of jurisdiction a second appeal by the federal government and dismissed as moot the government’s emergency motion to stay a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the removal of Hampton Dellinger from his position as special counsel.
February 18, 2025
TRO Denied In Federal Workers’ Privacy Suit Over OPM ‘Test’ Emails

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Federal workers suing under pseudonyms who accuse the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) of failing to conduct and publish a privacy impact assessment (PIA) before allegedly sending out “test” emails the workers claim are being used to collect information on them failed to show “that they are likely to incur some irreparable injury” without a temporary restraining order (TRO), a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled Feb. 17, denying a renewed TRO motion in the putative class case.
February 18, 2025
Renewed TRO Request Denied In Case Over DOGE’s Access To DOL’s Private Info

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Despite “serious concerns about . . . privacy,” a federal judge in the District of Columbia on Feb. 14 denied a renewed motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) filed by five unions and one nonprofit think tank in a case over federal records being provided to personnel from the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), finding there was no showing that the “plaintiffs are entitled to the extraordinary relief of a” TRO and that the record indicates that DOGE is a federal agency that “may detail its employees to other agencies consistent with the Economy Act.”
February 18, 2025
NLRB Acting General Counsel Rescinds Student-Athlete, Noncompete, Other Memoranda

WASHINGTON, D.C. — National Labor Relations Board Acting General Counsel William B. Cowen filed a memorandum on Feb. 14 calling out the “backlog of cases” and rescinding more than two dozen memoranda, including memoranda regarding statutory rights of student-athletes under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), noncompete agreements that violate the NLRA and guidance on the propriety of mail ballot elections.
February 14, 2025
TRO Extended, Amended Complaint Filed In Suit Seeking To Stop USAID Layoffs

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Feb. 13 filed an order amending and extending by a week a temporary restraining order (TRO) halting the placement of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees on administrative leave in a suit brought by two unions; an amended complaint was filed the same day adding Oxfam America as a plaintiff and a claim of ultra vires.
February 14, 2025
Federal Government Appeals TRO In Special Counsel’s Lawsuit Over Removal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its second appeal in as many days, the federal government on Feb. 13 filed an emergency motion in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to stay a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the removal of Hampton Dellinger from his position as special counsel; Dellinger filed an opposition the same day arguing that like the first appeal, the appellate court lacks jurisdiction.
February 14, 2025
USAID Workers Sue Elon Musk, DOGE For Constitutional Violations

GREENBELT, Md. — The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its “de facto” administrator, Elon Musk, have exercised control over U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) systems and blocked USAID personnel access to those systems while “dismantling” the agency, 26 unnamed USAID workers allege in a Feb. 13 complaint filed in a federal court in Maryland in which they seek to enjoin “Musk and his DOGE subordinates from performing their significant and wide-ranging duties unless and until . . . Musk is properly appointed pursuant to the U.S. Constitution.”
February 14, 2025
Former FLRA Chair Sues Replacement, Trump Alleging Improper Removal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The former chair of the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) filed a complaint against the new chair and President Donald J. Trump in a federal court in the District of Columbia on Feb. 13, alleging that her removal without a showing of cause violated the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations statute.
February 13, 2025
Vaccination Exemption Suit Parties Seek Stay Pending Settlement Of Related Cases

DETROIT — A former employee of a health insurance company alleging that she was wrongly denied a religious exemption from the company’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy and the company on Feb. 12 filed a joint request to stay and a notice from a Michigan federal judge presiding over discovery in several different but related cases ordering a 75-day stay in those cases and ordering that the parties file notifications of the stay order with all judges in the same federal district presiding over the related cases.
February 13, 2025
Judge Dissolves TRO, Finds Unions Lack Standing In Federal Worker Resignation Suit

BOSTON — A federal judge in Massachusetts on Feb. 12 dissolved a temporary restraining order (TRO) previously entered in a case brought by unions representing federal workers and challenging the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) “deferred resignation” program, finding the unions lack standing and the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the claims brought under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
February 13, 2025
D.C. Circuit Dismisses Government’s Appeal In Special Counsel’s Removal Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Feb. 12 dismissed for lack of jurisdiction an appeal by the officials from the federal government in a case by the special counsel challenging his purported removal by President Donald J. Trump and dismissed as moot the government’s emergency motion for stay.
February 13, 2025
7 Union Pacific Workers File Consolidated Brief Opposing Class Tolling Petitions

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rulings by three different federal circuits in several disability bias cases brought by Union Pacific Railroad Co. workers after class decertification that all found that American Pipe & Construction Co. v. Utah tolling ends for class members only when they have been “unambiguously excluded” from the class are correct, and the U.S. Supreme Court should not grant Union Pacific’s three petitions challenging those rulings, seven workers argue in a consolidated respondent brief filed Feb. 12.
February 13, 2025
5 Unions Sue Seeking To Stop ‘Mass Firings Of Hundreds Of Thousands’

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Five unions representing employees in dozens of federal agencies and departments filed a lawsuit Feb. 12 in a federal court in the District of Columbia seeking to protect their members “from the Executive Branch’s attempts to dismantle the federal government through the mass firings of hundreds of thousands of employees . . . and a pressure campaign on federal workers to quit their jobs through a ‘deferred resignation program.’”
February 13, 2025
EEOC Denied Post-Appeal Injunctive Relief In Wal-Mart Disability Bias Case

GREEN BAY, Wis. — A federal judge in Wisconsin denied a renewed motion for entry of an injunction filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in a disability bias suit against Wal-Mart Stores East L.P. following a ruling by the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in which it affirmed a jury’s finding of liability and awards of compensatory and punitive damages but vacated the denial of injunctive relief and remanded for further consideration.
February 12, 2025
8 Inspectors General Sue Challenging Legality Of Purported Firings

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Eight inspectors general (IGs) who allege that they were removed from office four days after President Donald J. Trump’s inauguration via two-sentence emails from individuals at the Office of Presidential Personnel filed a complaint Feb. 12 in a federal court in the District of Columbia alleging that their “purported terminations” were in violation of the Inspector General Act of 1978 (IG Act).
February 12, 2025
$22.6M FBI Basic Training Gender Bias Class Settlement Granted Final Approval

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A joint stipulation to file a sixth amended complaint in a gender bias case by female employees of the FBI was filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia one business day after a judge in that court granted final approval of a $22.6 million class settlement over those claims in the case that alleged gender bias during basic training.
February 12, 2025
6th Circuit Affirms Former Exec’s Losses In ‘Top Hat’ Severance Benefits Row

CINCINNATI — Affirming that the executive severance plan at issue in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit “qualifies as a top-hat plan,” a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel upheld discovery and judgment on the administrative record rulings against the appellant and found no error in the striking of his jury demand.
February 12, 2025
Former Jewish Group Worker Seeks Rehearing After 9th Circuit Finds Claims Barred

PASADENA, Calif. — A ruling by a split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel finding employment-related claims barred by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution’s ministerial exception was “a matter of first impression” and “expanded the . . . Ministerial Exception beyond anything envisioned or permitted by the Supreme Court,” a former employee of a Jewish organization argues in his petition for rehearing en banc and petition for panel rehearing.
February 11, 2025
Rehearing Sought After Minimum Wage Ruling Against Detention Center Operator

SEATTLE — A for-profit company that runs the Northwest Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center (NWIPC) filed a petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc after a split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that the application of the Washington Minimum Wage Act (WMWA) to voluntary work programs (VWP) for federal immigration detainees housed at NWIPC does not violate the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity, the state law is not preempted by federal law and the NWIPC operator does not have derivative sovereign immunity.
February 11, 2025
Federal Workers’ Unions Request Notice Of Deferred Resignation Stay

BOSTON — Unions that represent federal government workers and have sued over the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) alleged “deferred resignation” program filed a motion in a federal court in Massachusetts on Feb. 10 seeking clarification of an order issued that day and requesting that the federal government be directed to notify workers that a stay of directive’s deadline is “to remain in effect until further order of the Court.”
February 11, 2025
Removed NLRB Member Says Ouster Violated NLRA, Seeks Expedited Summary Judgment

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Five days after suing over her removal by President Donald J. Trump, Gwynne A. Wilcox, the ousted National Labor Relations Board member, filed a motion on Feb. 10 in a federal court in the District of Columbia for expedited summary judgment, arguing that her removal was unlawful and left the NLRB without “a quorum, leaving it unable to fulfill its critical role in adjudicating labor disputes.”
February 11, 2025
AI Employment Discrimination Plaintiffs Seek Conditional Certification

SAN FRANCISCO — Job seekers who claim they were discriminated against by an artificial intelligence hiring tool asked a federal judge in California to approve conditional certification of the collective action, saying the move will help protect prospective class members and ensure efficient resolution of the case.
February 11, 2025
Federal Worker Union Files 2 Complaints Over CFPB Halted Work, Data Access

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) filed two complaints in a federal court in the District of Columbia against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) acting director, one seeking to halt the access to CFPB systems, including employee information, for members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and one challenging the directive for CFPB employees to stop their supervision and enforcement work.
February 11, 2025
5th Circuit Revives Miss. Man’s Whistleblower, 1st Amendment Retaliation Claims

GREENVILLE, Miss. — Following a ruling on a certified question by the Mississippi Supreme Court, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said a man who was allegedly fired from his job after reporting “inefficiency and incompetence” within the workplace can still bring claims of retaliation against his employer pursuant to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Mississippi Whistleblower Protection Act (MWPA) after finding that the claims were timely filed.
February 10, 2025
NLRB To Supreme Court: NLRA Interpretation Petition Should Be Denied

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A petition for a writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court justices to decide whether deferring an interpretation of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to the National Labor Relations Board violates Loper Bright Enterprises, Inc. v. Raimondo should be denied as Loper Bright did not apply to the case, there is no circuit conflict and the case presents “a particularly unsuitable vehicle to address the question presented,” the NRLB argues in a Feb. 7 respondent brief that had been requested by the justices.