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Mealey's Employment

  • April 30, 2025

    High Court:  Reservists Owed Differential Pay For National Emergency Active Duty

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled April 30 that a U.S. Coast Guard reservist called to active duty during a time in which a national emergency has been declared “is entitled to differential pay without having to prove that his service was substantively connected in some particular way to some particular emergency.”

  • April 30, 2025

    News Organization, Workers Agree To $4.5M WARN Act Class Settlement

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted preliminary approval of a $4.5 million settlement to end a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act class case brought by workers against JAF Communications Inc. after they were terminated by a now-defunct news organization, The Messenger.

  • April 29, 2025

    Magistrate Judge Rules On Discovery In EEOC, United HealthCare Vaccine Mandate Suit

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal magistrate judge in Ohio ordered the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to “work with” United HealthCare Services Inc. in narrowing down which details of a fired work-from-home employee’s medical records should be considered when they confer on outstanding discovery disputes in a lawsuit alleging that United violated the employee’s rights when it denied her a request for a religious exemption from its COVID-19 vaccine mandate and terminated her.

  • April 29, 2025

    Parties Agree To Dismiss; Challenge To $12M Verdict For Vaccine Refuser Dropped

    DETROIT — The parties filed a stipulation of dismissal with prejudice on April 28 in a case in which a Michigan federal jury awarded a former employee of a medical insurer nearly $3 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages after finding the insurer liable for discrimination for failing to accommodate her religious objection to receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

  • April 29, 2025

    U.S. High Court Hears Arguments On Veterans’ Pay In Appeal Of Class Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 28 heard arguments from counsel representing veterans and the United States in a class dispute over the application of the Barring Act to settlements of combat-related special compensation (CRSC) requests.

  • April 25, 2025

    ER Doctor Whose Suspension For Refusing COVID Vaccine Was Upheld Seeks Rehearing

    PHILADELPHIA — An emergency room doctor on April 24 filed a petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc of a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel opinion affirming the judgment of a Pennsylvania federal court, which granted summary judgment in favor of a hospital in the doctor’s lawsuit alleging religious discrimination and retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA) after the doctor was refused a religious exemption from a company-mandated COVID-19 vaccination and suspended.

  • April 25, 2025

    Human Rights Groups Sue Homeland Security For Closing 3 Oversight Offices

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three human rights organizations on April 24 filed a complaint against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem seeking to reverse the shutdown of three DHS offices dealing with civil rights and civil liberties, immigration issues and violations at federal immigration detention facilities.

  • April 24, 2025

    4th Circuit: Local Court Attorney Fee Matrix Isn’t ‘Presumptively Reasonable’

    RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has vacated and remanded an attorney fee award in a fair labor practices case, finding that the district court improperly used an outdated local court rule’s attorney fee matrix to determine “presumptively reasonable” rates.

  • April 24, 2025

    OPM, Acting Director Appeal Order To Halt Federal Agency Firing Mandates

    SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and its acting director filed an appeal on April 23, several days after a federal judge in the District of Columbia enjoined them from directing other federal agencies to terminate employees.

  • April 24, 2025

    U.S. Asks Supreme Court For Stay Of Military Transgender Ban Injunction

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States, the president and military leaders filed an application in the U.S. Supreme Court on April 24 seeking a stay of a trial court’s March 27 preliminary injunction granted to servicemembers and an organization that sue in a federal court in Washington challenging President Donald J. Trump’s executive order (EO) banning transgender people from the military.

  • April 24, 2025

    Distiller Seeks En Banc Rehearing After NLRB Impasse, Terms Ruling Is Enforced

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Hood River Distillers Inc. filed a petition for a rehearing en banc after a split District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied its petition for review of a National Labor Relations Board decision in a case in which the employer alleged that it reached an impasse while trying to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and accused the union of engaging in delay tactics before and during the coronavirus pandemic.

  • April 24, 2025

    Employment Agency Wants 6th Circuit Rehearing On ‘Salaried’ Worker Decision

    CINCINNATI — An employment agency that a split Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled improperly classified a pipe inspector who was provided guaranteed pay each week and paid his hourly amount for work performed in excess of eight hours as a “salaried” worker exempt from overtime is asking for panel reconsideration or rehearing en banc, arguing that the opinion conflicts with U.S. Supreme Court and circuit court precedent, “involves questions of exceptional importance” and does not conform with the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) “unambiguous language” for salary basis regulations.

  • April 24, 2025

    Shriners Employees Fired Over Vaccine Ask 5th Circuit To Rehear Claims Dismissal

    NEW ORLEANS — Several Shriners Hospital for Children employees who were fired for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine are asking the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reconsider an earlier ruling dismissing federal and state claims against their former employer, arguing that the panel’s decision misapplied the law, violated the separation of powers doctrine and denied constitutional due process rights.

  • April 23, 2025

    Government Appeals Federal Judge’s Suspension Of CFPB Reduction-In-Force

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government appealed an order by a federal judge in the District of Columbia suspending the firing of more than 1,400 workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB); one day later the judge issued a minute order clarifying that the order “will remain in place for no more than 14 days, ‘unless before that time the court, for good cause, extends it for a like period or the adverse party consents to a longer extension.’”

  • April 23, 2025

    U.S. Supreme Court Declines To Hear University Manager’s COVID-19 Vaccine Appeal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied a pro se petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a former University of Kentucky department manager after a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a summary judgment ruling for the university’s board of trustees in a dispute over a COVID-19 test-or-vaccinate policy.

  • April 22, 2025

    Unions Seek Injunction In DOL DOGE Access Suit After Partial Dismissal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Labor unions challenging access to U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) records by personnel from U.S. Digital Service and the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization (together, DOGE) filed a motion in a federal court in the District of Columbia for a preliminary injunction; the filing was made two days after a judge dismissed the plaintiffs’ standalone Privacy Act claim as well several claims brought under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

  • April 22, 2025

    Former Employee Seeks Payment For Mandatory Pre-Shift COVID-19 Screening

    CHICAGO — A former employee filed a purported class action against his employer seeking to recover unpaid wages for mandatory pre-shift COVID-19 screening during the pandemic under the Illinois Minimum Wage Law (IMWL), the Illinois Wage and Payment Collection Act (IWPCA) and quantum meruit, contending that the time spent screening and awaiting screening was controlled by the employer and necessary to his job and, thus, compensable.

  • April 21, 2025

    Resort Seeks Reduction In Fee Request After $133,000 Award To COVID Vaccine Refuser

    DETROIT — After a Michigan federal jury awarded $133,000 to a former employee of a resort, having determined that the resort failed to accommodate the employee’s religious beliefs that conflicted with getting the COVID-19 vaccine, the resort filed its response to the employee’s motion for $434,130 in attorney fees and costs, requesting that the court lower the award from the amount requested.

  • April 18, 2025

    Magistrate Advises Dismissal Of ‘As Regarded’ ADA Claim Based On Vaccination Status

    PITTSBURGH — Concluding that being unvaccinated for COVID-19 cannot be the basis for a perceived disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a Pennsylvania federal magistrate judge recommended granting the partial motion to dismiss of a pharmaceutical company in a former employee’s lawsuit alleging that the company failed to accommodate what it perceived as the medical disability of being unvaccinated and thus immunocompromised.

  • April 18, 2025

    Pennsylvania Federal Judge Awards Reduced $982,998 In Fees In Denny’s Settlement

    PITTSBURGH — A Pennsylvania federal judge has awarded a plaintiff in a wage and hour class settlement involving Denny’s restaurants $982,998 in attorney fees, reducing the requested amount by 11% for a variety of reasons, including reasonable fees for the Pittsburgh legal market.

  • April 17, 2025

    Trump Posits Power As NLRB, MSPB Members Fight Removal In U.S. High Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — One day after ousted members of the National Labor Relations Board and Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) asked the U.S. Supreme Court to deny an application filed by President Donald J. Trump and other federal government officials to overturn a split District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling vacating a stay of their reinstatements to the boards, arguing the removal decisions were hasty and unprecedented, the federal government in an April 16 reply brief doubled down its stance, stating that Article II of the of the U.S. Constitution “vests the ‘executive Power’—'all of it’—in the President alone” to fire leaders of executive agencies.

  • April 17, 2025

    COVID Vaccine Failure-To- Accommodate Claims Dropped Against Third-Party Evaluators

    CAMDEN, N.J. — A New Jersey federal court filed an opinion after earlier granting the motion to dismiss of a medical services provider and a physician in a lawsuit by an employment candidate alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), negligence and other claims in connection with an assessment of the employee’s medical history requested by the prospective employer after the candidate requested a medical exemption from a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination.

  • April 16, 2025

    Susman Godfrey Granted TRO In Suit Alleging Trump EO Is Unconstitutional

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on April 15 granted Susman Godfrey LLP’s motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) in its lawsuit against various federal agencies and officials over an April 9 executive order (EO) that it says unconstitutionally targets it due to “its work defending the integrity of the 2020 presidential election.”  It is the fourth law firm to be granted a TRO after becoming a target of an EO since the start of President Donald J. Trump’s second term.

  • April 15, 2025

    Panel: Title VII Does Not Require Allowing Unvaccinated ER Doctor To Work Onsite

    PHILADELPHIA — Finding that accommodating an emergency room doctor’s religious objection to the COVID-19 vaccine would be an undue burden on a hospital, a panel of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of a Pennsylvania federal court, which granted summary judgment in favor of the hospital in a lawsuit alleging religious discrimination and retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA) after the doctor was refused a religious exemption from a company-mandated COVID-19 vaccination and suspended.

  • April 14, 2025

    Susman Godfrey Sues Federal Government After Being Targeted In Executive Order

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald J. Trump’s use of executive orders (EOs) to “retaliat[e] against organizations and people that he dislikes” and halt business with certain law firms, revoke security clearances and restrict their access to government buildings is unconstitutional, and if the EOs are allowed to stand, they will permit future presidents to freely “seek to retaliate against a different set of perceived foes,” Susman Godfrey LLP argues in its April 11 complaint filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia; the firm is the fifth to become a target of an EO since the start of Trump’s second term.