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Mealey's Employment

January 13, 2025
Appellees To 9th Circuit: Uphold Dismissal Of ERISA Suit Over Severance Benefits

SAN FRANCISCO — Urging the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm dismissal of a putative class case filed by former Twitter employees and reject arguments that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) makes as amicus curiae, Elon Musk and related entities argue in part in a Jan. 10 brief that precedent supports the ruling that the workers didn’t plausibly allege that a purported severance plan is governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
January 10, 2025
10th Circuit Accepts Employee’s Late Rehearing Bid In COVID Vaccine Refusal Case

DENVER — The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a request to accept an untimely petition for rehearing en banc submitted by a former nursing center employee seeking review of a panel judgment affirming the dismissal of her First Amendment free exercise claim stemming from her termination for refusing to be vaccinated for COVID-19 as mandated by a state health board emergency rule.
January 09, 2025
4th Circuit Vacates Certification Of Bojangles Wage Class For Abuse Of Discretion

RICHMOND, Va. — A trial court abused its discretion when it certified two classes of Bojangles’ Restaurants Inc. shift managers in a wage-and-hour complaint as “it employed an inappropriately high level of generality when” it identified the policies allegedly related to the claim and when it created “overly broad class definitions,” a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, vacating the certification order and remanding.
January 08, 2025
Decade-Long Amazon Wage-And-Hour MDL Dismissed After $11.1M Settlement Approved

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A federal judge in Kentucky dismissed with prejudice a multidistrict litigation accusing Amazon.com Inc. and related parties of failing to pay workers for time spent undergoing mandatory security screenings stating that all matters had been resolved; the order was filed a little over two weeks after an $11.1 million settlement between the online retailer and California workers was granted final approval.
January 08, 2025
Home Depot’s $9.5 Million Meal, Rest Period Settlement Granted Final Approval

SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington in a pair of orders granted final approval of a $9.5 million class settlement by The Home Depot Inc. and Home Depot USA Inc. (together, Home Depot) in a complaint by workers who alleged that the companies owed unpaid wages and compensation for rest and meal breaks the workers were denied and approved the requested attorney fees, costs and incentive awards.
January 08, 2025
Class Certification Denied In Amazon Driver’s Expenses, Misclassification Case

SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington denied a renewed motion for class certification filed by an Amazon.com Inc. and Amazon Logistics Inc. (together, Amazon) driver who alleges that he and other have been misclassified and were made to pay for business expenses and dismissed the driver’s Massachusetts Wage Act claim “for failure to state a viable claim.”
January 08, 2025
Wal-Mart Applicant Seeks Rehearing After Dismissal Of Cannabis Use Suit Upheld

PHILADELPHIA — A Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority erred in upholding a ruling finding that a New Jersey law prohibiting the firing of workers for cannabis use does not create a private cause of action as the “novel question of state law” needed to be certified to the New Jersey Supreme Court, the majority’s analysis of the case “conflicts with decisions of the Supreme Court and” the Third Circuit and the majority’s “interpretation effectively nullifies core employment protections that the New Jersey Legislature enacted, agues a job applicant whose job offer was rescinded after testing positive for cannabis in a petition for rehearing.
January 08, 2025
United Airlines Settles EEOC Race, National Origin Bias Case For $99,000

DENVER — United Airlines Inc. will pay $99,000 to end a complaint by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that the company allowed an Asian American employee of Mongolian ancestry to be called a racial slur, physically assaulted and have his employment threatened and then delayed an investigation, according to a consent decree signed by a federal judge in Colorado.
January 08, 2025
3rd Circuit Affirms Back Pay Award, Denial Of Liquidated Damages In DOL Suit

PHILADELPHIA — An employer must pay its workers for the true time they spend completing tasks and not the time the employer determines is “reasonable” and bears the burden of proving that such time is de minimis when using that defense, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, leaving untouched a $22 million back wages verdict in a case brought by the secretary of Labor and upholding the trial court’s denial of liquidated damages.
January 07, 2025
Jewish Organization Worker To Seek Rehearing After Ministerial Exception Ruling

PASADENA, Calif. — A former employee of a Jewish organization filed a motion on Jan. 6 for an extension of time to seek a rehearing after a split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel agreed with the district court that the worker’s employment-related claims were barred by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution’s ministerial exception.
January 07, 2025
Class Certified In Worker’s WARN Act Case Against Digital News Company

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York certified a class of workers terminated by a now-defunct news organization, The Messenger, who allege that the mass layoff by JAF Communications Inc. violated the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.
January 06, 2025
More Than $60M In Settlements Preliminarily OK’d In No-Poaching Class Case

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A federal judge in Connecticut on Jan. 3 granted preliminary approval of more than $60 million in settlements reached in a class case by workers who accuse aerospace engineering firms and executives of conspiring to not solicit, recruit, hire without prior approval or otherwise compete for engineers and other skilled employees.
January 06, 2025
Ex-Employee Fired For Refusing COVID Vaccine Amends Discrimination Complaint

PORTLAND, Ore. — A former employee of a sportswear company who was terminated after declining a company-mandated COVID-19 vaccination filed an amended complaint alleging that her employer failed to make a good faith effort to accommodate her religious beliefs, dropping a medical disability-based claim that was dismissed by an Oregon federal judge pursuant to the employer’s motion for judgment on the pleadings.
January 06, 2025
U.S. As Amicus Supports Vacatur Of Judgment In Sexual Orientation Bias Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “imposes the same evidentiary burdens on all plaintiffs,” and the evidentiary standards in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green “do not vary,” the United States argues in an amicus brief filed in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting vacatur of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judgment in a heterosexual worker’s case alleging discrimination based on sexual orientation.
January 03, 2025
Expressive Association Claims Reinstated In Case Over Reproductive Choice Labor Law

NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a Jan. 2 opinion vacated dismissal of expressive association claims brought by three employers in a case challenging a New York act that prohibits “discrimination based on an employee’s or a dependent’s reproductive health decision making” and remanded for the trial court to decide whether any of the employers made a plausible claim in light of Slattery v. Hochul.
January 03, 2025
RTX’s $34M Settlement In No-Poaching Class Case Brings Total To More Than $60M

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Workers who accuse aerospace engineering firms, senior executives and managers of conspiring to not solicit, recruit, hire without prior approval or otherwise compete for engineers and other skilled employees filed a motion in a federal court in Connecticut seeking preliminary approval of a $34 million settlement with RTX Corp., Pratt & Whitney Division.
January 02, 2025
Amicus, Company To High Court: Dismissal Pending Arbitration Was Not End Of Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An employee’s voluntary dismissal of an age bias suit pending arbitration is not a “final” proceeding, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America argues in amicus brief supporting an energy company’s position that a trial court lacked jurisdiction over the employee’s Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b) motion.
January 02, 2025
DOL Acting Secretary Granted Extension To Respond To FLSA Exemption Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court granted the U.S. Department of Labor’s acting secretary’s request to have until Feb. 5 to respond to a petition for a writ of certiorari by an industrial product wholesaler asking the justices to decide whether a “judicially created ‘relational analysis’ can be used to decide the FLSA’s [Fair Labor Standards Act] administrative exemption, in contravention of the Secretary’s regulations.”
December 20, 2024
After Partial Dismissal, Garda Data Breach Suit Settled, Stayed, Closed

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — On the heels of a ruling in which she partly granted a security firm’s motion to dismiss privacy and negligence claims over a data breach that exposed employees’ personally identifiable information (PII), a Florida federal judge granted the plaintiffs’ motion to stay the suit in light of a postruling announcement that the parties reached a conditional settlement of the putative class action.
December 20, 2024
Split 9th Circuit: Arbitrator Ruling Can Preclude Relitigation Of SOX Issues

PASADENA, Calif. — While a ruling by an arbitrator can’t preclude a Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) claim, it can “preclude relitigation of issues underlying such a claim,” a divided Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming dismissal of a whistleblower retaliation claim.
December 19, 2024
11th Circuit Upholds Ruling Against Starbucks In COBRA Notice Case Arbitration Bid

ATLANTA — Upholding a ruling in a dispute over allegedly deficient Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) notice, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled in part that the spouse of a former Starbucks worker “was not a party to the arbitration agreement” and therefore “cannot be compelled to arbitrate absent another principle of law or equity.”
December 19, 2024
FedEx Worker Whose $366M Retaliation Verdict Was Slashed Announces Settlement

HOUSTON — A former FedEx Corporate Services Inc. employee whose more than $366 million jury verdict in a retaliation case was reduced to less than $250,000 filed a notice of settlement in a federal court in Texas less than three months after the U.S. Supreme Court denied her petition for a writ of certiorari.
December 19, 2024
Worker Granted Extension To Respond To Class Tolling High Court Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 18 granted a motion by Union Pacific Railroad Co. workers for an extension of time to respond to a petition by the company seeking a ruling on whether tolling under American Pipe & Construction Co. v. Utah extends “to non-class members so long as they were not ‘unambiguously excluded” from the class.
December 18, 2024
Morgan Stanley Expenses Settlement Reaffirmed, Attorney Fees Disgorgement Denied

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California reaffirmed the fairness of a more than $10 million settlement in a case accusing Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (MSSB) of various wage violations and declined to vacate a supplemental attorney fees award, deny further distributions or disgorge past payments.
December 18, 2024
Amended Complaint Allowed In Disney Wage Suit After $233M Settlement Reached

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California judge on Dec 18 permitted an amended complaint to be filed in a lawsuit accusing a theme park operator and the company running its restaurants of wage violations in light of a $233 million proposed settlement that would resolve all claims related to allegedly underpaid service charges under the Anaheim, Calif., Living Wage Ordinance (LWO).