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Mealey's Employment

  • March 20, 2026

    Parties Agree To Dismiss ADA ‘Regarded As’ Claim Based On COVID Vaccination Status

    PITTSBURGH — The parties filed a stipulation of dismissal on March 19 in a lawsuit brought by a former employee under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) claiming that her employer failed to accommodate what it perceived as the medical disability of being immunocompromised after she refused to become vaccinated for COVID-19.

  • March 20, 2026

    Government Calls Union’s Intervention Denial Petition ‘Manifestly Unwarranted’

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government contends in response to a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) that review of a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority’s decision to deny intervention in a trio of cases involving the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board is “manifestly unwarranted” because the panel’s decision was correct, the appeal was untimely, no circuit split exists and there are no unmet interests, among other arguments.

  • March 19, 2026

    10th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Fired Chipotle Manager’s Age Discrimination Suit

    DENVER —  A 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a New Mexico federal judge’s summary judgment holding that a 54-year-old, terminated Chipotle field manager did not present sufficient evidence to show that he was fired due to age discrimination and instead concluded that he was fired because of a cockroach infestation and reports of other cleanliness issues at several restaurants he was responsible for overseeing.

  • March 19, 2026

    D.C. Federal Judge Vacates Actions Taken To Reduce Staffing At Voice Of America

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia ordered all Voice of America (VOA) employees placed on administrative leave in March 2025 to return to work no later than March 23, 2026, in a decision that partially granted and partially denied summary judgment motions filed by journalists, unions and the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees VOA.

  • March 19, 2026

    Vice Chancellor Reinstalls Subnautica Studio CEO After ChatGPT Termination Plan

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware vice chancellor reinstated the CEO of the game studio behind “Subnautica,” unwinding a termination the parent company undertook after consulting with ChatGPT in an effort to avoid an up to $250 million payout to employees it believed would have been triggered by the release of a sequel to the popular title.

  • March 18, 2026

    Wash. State Target Workers Ink $1.5M Class Settlement In Federal Wage Law Case

    TACOMA, Wash. — Tens of thousands of current and former hourly Target employees in Washington will receive portions of a $1.5 million payment under a settlement of a class action after the corporation allegedly failed to pay adequate wages and provide legally required breaks over a nearly four-year period.

  • March 18, 2026

    N.J. Farm Opposes DOL’s Push For High Court Review Of Migrant Worker Fines Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In response to a petition for writ of certiorari filed by the Department of Labor (DOL) in which the department asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review whether the U.S. Constitution allows it to handle cases where employers owe money for violating H-2A migrant worker employment rules, a New Jersey family farm says the department’s question is flawed and misstates the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and it seeks a denial of the petition or a “more neutral phrasing” of the question.

  • March 18, 2026

    Fired Employee Who Refused COVID Shot Settles With Employer After New Trial Grant

    CHICAGO — A transit authority and its former employee have reached a settlement in the employee’s lawsuit seeking damages for violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act stemming from his termination for refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 after an Illinois federal judge granted a new trial because he had failed to include a mixed-motive jury instruction on the issue of a transit authority’s motivation for terminating the employee.

  • March 18, 2026

    Louisiana EEOC Worker’s Title VII Sex Discrimination Case Ends In $250K Settlement

    NEW ORLEANS — An Equal Employment Opportunity Commission employee who filed suit in a Louisiana federal court alleging discrimination under Title VII after she was passed over for a promotion in favor of a male subordinate agreed through a settlement agreement reached after a mistrial to drop the case in exchange for $250,000 and the opportunity to quietly retire with all of her benefits.

  • March 17, 2026

    D.C. Circuit Agrees To DOJ’s Withdrawal Of Dismissal Motion In Law Firm EO Cases

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 16 agreed to the withdrawal of a dismissal motion by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and other federal agencies in four consolidated appeals following trial court rulings for four law firms that separately sued after each was targeted in March and April 2025 executive orders (EOs) in which President Donald J. Trump described the firms’ “risks” to the country.

  • March 17, 2026

    Ex-Workers Waive Response In U.S. Supreme Court CFAA Password Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two former employees of a national debt collection firm waived their right to respond to the firm’s petition for a writ of certiorari that asks the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was correct in ruling that the employees committed “workplace-policy infractions” and did not violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) when they shared a spreadsheet containing passwords for login information and that the passwords were not trade secrets under state or federal law.

  • March 13, 2026

    Split 4th Circuit Protects Musk, Others From Depositions In USAID Case, For Now

    RICHMOND, Va. — Issuing a 2-1 ruling concerning a class action challenging the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a petition for a writ of mandamus and directed the trial court to issue a protective order to prevent depositions of Elon Musk, Peter Marocco and Jeremy Lewin.

  • March 13, 2026

    Deal For $27.5M Plus Passes Reported In Suit Over Early Retirement Policy

    CHICAGO — Plaintiffs who appealed dismissal of their putative class suit over a United Airlines Inc. early retirement policy would accept $27.5 million and “8 vacation passes” per member of the proposed settlement class to resolve the case under a deal they outlined for an Illinois federal court in a motion for an indicative ruling.

  • March 12, 2026

    1st Circuit Affirms Injunction Denial, Attorney Fees In Nurse’s Retaliation Case

    BOSTON — A First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held in affirming two separate orders that a federal judge in Puerto Rico did not abuse her discretion in permissibly discounting vague entries and applying a downward adjustment to a nurse’s request for attorney fees and that the judge reasonably denied the nurse’s motion for permanent injunctive relief for two employment requests after she won a jury verdict in a retaliation suit against her employer.

  • March 11, 2026

    Certification Of 1 Subclass In COVID-19 Vaccine Case Against United Upheld

    NEW ORLEANS — A partially divided Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a trial court’s certification of only one subclass out of several proposed classes and subclasses in a case by workers who accuse United Airlines Inc. of discrimination by failing to provide religious and medical accommodations, finding no abuse of discretion in the certification only of employees who sought an accommodation due to religious beliefs and were accommodated with unpaid leave.

  • March 11, 2026

    Expert Can Testify On Psychological Damage Caused By Racial Harassment At Work

    OMAHA, Neb. — A clinical psychologist can testify that “a series of racially targeted incidents” caused a former employee of Oriental Trading Co. (OTC) to suffer from post-traumatic stress and anxiety, a federal magistrate judge in Nebraska held, also ruling that the company’s expert is excluded from testifying on legal conclusions.

  • March 11, 2026

    Some AI Hiring Discrimination Claims Survive Dismissal Attempt

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California partially denied Workday Inc.’s motion to dismiss, allowing disparate impact claims over its artificial intelligence job-application screening tool to proceed while granting leave to amend certain California state law and disability claims.  Previously, a magistrate judge granted an administrative motion to withdraw an exhibit from a contested joint discovery letter that defendant Workday claims the plaintiffs filed without consent and that varies drastically from the last draft version it saw.  The case involves allegations that Workday’s AI applicant screening program discriminates against minorities and those with disabilities.

  • March 09, 2026

    Split 5th Circuit Panel Affirms NLRB’s Reinstatement Of Fired Trader Joe’s Worker

    NEW ORLEANS — Despite a dissenting judge calling her “the sort of employee who haunts the nightmares of HR managers everywhere,” a fired Trader Joe’s crew member will be reinstated to her job and compensated for lost earnings and further make-whole relief pursuant to Thryv, Inc.,   following a ruling by a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals majority that granted the National Labor Relations Board’s cross-petition to enforce an order finding that the employee was unlawfully fired after she engaged in protected activity regarding COVID-19 safety protocols.

  • March 09, 2026

    NFL Coach Argues Against Supreme Court Consideration Of Arbitration Question

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court should deny a petition for a writ of certiorari by the National Football League and three teams concerning the enforceability of arbitration agreements that designate the NFL commissioner as the default arbitrator and allow the commissioner to develop the arbitral procedures because there is no circuit split, no question warranting high court review and no conflict with Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) precedent, an NFL coach who brought a race bias putative class suit argues in his March 6 opposition brief.

  • March 06, 2026

    Class Action DOGE Data Privacy Suit Survives Dismissal Motion

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge denied a motion filed by a federal agency and the U.S. Department of Treasury to dismiss an amended putative class complaint alleging unlawful disclosure of federal employees’ personal data to the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE), holding that the employees sufficiently alleged damages under the U.S. Privacy Act of 1974 by asserting that they purchased identity theft protection services following public concerns about DOGE’s access to government records.

  • March 06, 2026

    Expedited Discovery Ordered Related To Nonrenewal Of FEMA Workers In RIF Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — The federal government defendants in a lawsuit by unions, groups and local governments challenging an executive order (EO) and memorandum implementing the EO that resulted in widespread layoffs of federal workers filed a 49-page Microsoft Excel document on March 5 in a federal court in California in response to an expedited discovery order issued two days earlier regarding “the individual(s) involved in the decisions regarding the renewal of” Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) cadre of on-call response/recovery (CORE) employees.

  • March 06, 2026

    Split 6th Circuit Issues New Arbitration Ruling In Fired Worker’s Harassment Case

    CINCINNATI — Upon finding that a fired Tennessee paralegal who sued her employer for discrimination, hostile work environment and retaliation had “sufficient factual material” to state a claim for sexual harassment, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals majority, in affirming and remanding a lower court’s ruling, addressed “an issue of first impression” and held that the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 (EFAA) bars arbitration of all of the employee’s claims.

  • March 05, 2026

    Workday Takes Issue With Discovery Letter, Exhibits In AI Discrimination Case

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal magistrate judge in California on March 4 granted an administrative motion to remove an exhibit from a contested joint discovery letter that defendant Workday Inc. claims plaintiffs filed without consent and that varies drastically from the last draft version it saw.  The case involves allegations that Workday’s artificial intelligence applicant screening program discriminates against minorities and those with disabilities.

  • March 04, 2026

    DOJ Abruptly Seeks Withdrawal Of Dismissal Motion In Cases Over EOs Targeting Firms

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and other federal agencies and agency heads filed a motion on March 3 in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to withdraw their motion filed one day earlier seeking voluntary dismissal of four consolidated appeals following trial court rulings for four law firms that separately sued after each was targeted in March and April 2025 executive orders (EOs) in which President Donald J. Trump described the firms’ “risks” to the country.

  • March 04, 2026

    Immigration Judges Tell U.S. High Court To Deny Speech Policy Dispute Petition

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ) says, in opposing a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by the director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), that the U.S. Supreme Court’s review of a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel’s ruling vacating dismissal of a complaint challenging a federal employee speech policy would be “premature and unnecessary” under the factors established in Thunder Basin Coal Co. v. Reich and that the ruling was “consistent with the party presentation principle” and the court’s own precedent.