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Mealey's Employment

April 14, 2025
EEOC Announces 4 Law Firms Entered Settlement Agreement Disavowing DEI

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced April 11 that four law firms — Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Latham & Watkins LLP, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and A&O Shearman Sterling LLC — have entered a settlement agreement abandoning any diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, programs and practices.
April 14, 2025
Potbelly Sandwich Shop Owner Sues Employment Practices Liability Insurer

SEATTLE — The owner and operator of several Potbelly Sandwich Shops in Washington state sued its employment practices liability insurer in a Washington court, alleging breach of contract and seeking a declaratory judgment that the insurer has a duty to defend and indemnify it against an underlying putative class alleging that it violated the Washington Equal Pay and Opportunities Act by not providing wage and salary information to job applicants in Washington.
April 11, 2025
Appeals Court Revives 2 BIPA Suits Over Nursing Homes’ Biometric Timeclocks

MT. VERNON, Ill. — In a pair of almost identical unpublished opinions, a Fifth District Appellate Court of Illinois panel reversed a trial court’s dismissal of two putative class actions by former employees alleging violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) via nursing facilities’ use of biometric timeclocks.
April 10, 2025
7th Circuit Reopens Back Pay, Affirms Seniority In Sheriff’s Office ADA Case

CHICAGO — A Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel put back pay back on the table and affirmed seniority benefits for a former Cook County, Ill., correctional officer who sued his employers for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and the U.S. Constitution for requiring release of his medical records to complete a fitness-for-duty exam to return to work after he was put on leave following run-ins with other staff.
April 10, 2025
Split Panel Stays Preliminary Injunction In States’ Federal Worker Firings Case

RICHMOND, Va. — A preliminary injunction partially granted by a federal judge in Maryland in a suit by 19 states and the District of Columbia over the firing of probationary federal workers en masse was stayed April 9 by a divided Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel.
April 10, 2025
Nonprofit Seeks Preliminary Injunction In Suit Over DEI Executive Order

CHICAGO — A nonprofit that prepares women to enter and remain in high-wage skilled trades filed a reply in a federal court in Illinois in support of its preliminary injunction motion in a case challenging President Donald J. Trump’s Jan. 20 and 21 executive orders (EOs) declaring programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) “‘illegal and immoral discrimination.’”
April 10, 2025
4th Circuit Stays Preliminary Injunction In USAID Workers’ Shutdown Suit

RICHMOND, Va. — A Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel stayed pending resolution of the appeal a trial court’s order partially granting a preliminary injunction in a case by 26 unnamed U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) workers who allege that actions by Elon Musk and others to shut down the agency violate the U.S. Constitution.
April 09, 2025
U.S. High Court Chief Justice Stays Reinstatements Of NLRB, MSPB Members

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. issued an order April 9 staying the reinstatements of National Labor Relations Board Member Gwynne A. Wilcox and Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) Member Cathy A. Harris as ordered by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia pending further review by the chief justice or the high court; the order was issued in response to an application filed hours earlier by President Donald J. Trump and other federal government officials after a split District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated a stay of the reinstatements.
April 09, 2025
EEOC Commissioner Sues Trump, Agency, Acting Chair, Calling Removal ‘Illegal’

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald J. Trump’s order one week after his inauguration that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission remove Commissioner Jocelyn Samuels prior to her term expiring in July 2026 was part of the Trump “Administration’s efforts to turn back the clock on decades of established precedent protecting workers and job applicants from discrimination,” Samuels alleges in her complaint filed April 9 in a federal court in the District of Columbia.
April 09, 2025
Unions’ Motion In Bargaining EO Suit Will Be Treated As For Preliminary Injunction

SAN FRANCISCO — A motion for a temporary restraining order filed by unions suing over a March executive order that limited certain federal workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively will be treated as a motion for a preliminary injunction, a federal judge in California said in an April 8 order.
April 09, 2025
U.S. High Court Declines To Hear Appeal Of Detainee Wage Collective, Class Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a Maryland county seeking a ruling on “[w]hether inmates working in furtherance of public works projects for the government charged with their custody and care” are employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
April 09, 2025
6th Circuit: Workers’ Bribery Scheme Suit Preempted, Belongs In Federal Court

CINCINNATI — State law claims by engineers that their employer and union engaged in a bribery scheme are preempted by the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) and belong in federal rather than state court, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming the trial court’s denial of remand.
April 08, 2025
Split U.S. High Court Stays Preliminary Injunction In Federal Worker Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A split U.S. Supreme Court on April 8 stayed a preliminary injunction entered by a federal trial court on March 13 directing the reinstatement of more than 16,000 probationary workers from six federal agencies, pending disposition of an appeal before the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and a petition for a writ of certiorari if one is sought.
April 08, 2025
Unions’, Employees’ Privacy Act, APA Suit Over DOGE’s OPM Access To Proceed

NEW YORK — Claims brought against the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) by two labor unions and three individual federal employees over the agency’s grant of access to private personnel records to the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) largely survived a motion to dismiss, with a New York federal judge finding that the plaintiffs sufficiently pleaded their claims under the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
April 08, 2025
22 States Seek TRO In Lawsuit Over Library, Other Agency Eliminations

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A March 14 executive order (EO) directing the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and other agencies to eliminate programs and components not mandated by statute and reduce staff and functions directly impacts states and funding for state employees, Rhode Island and 21 other states argue in their complaint and motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) filed against President Donald J. Trump and other federal officials and offices in a federal court in Rhode Island.
April 08, 2025
6th Circuit Denies Panel Rehearing In Group’s Appeal Over Captive Audience Memo

CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a motion for panel rehearing or to vacate and dismiss filed by a trade association after a panel affirmed a trial court’s dismissal of the association’s suit challenging a memorandum on captive-audience meetings issued by the former National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel and the acting general counsel one day later rescinded the memorandum in question.
April 07, 2025
Split En Banc D.C. Circuit Vacates Stay Of NLRB, MSPB Members’ Reinstatements

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided en banc District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 7, citing Humphrey’s Executor v. United States and Wiener v. United States, vacated a March 28 divided panel order that stayed the reinstatements of a member of the National Labor Relations Board and a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) pending appeal; on the same day, the court issued a second per curiam order denying petitions by the NLRB and MSPB members for an initial merits hearing en banc.
April 07, 2025
Federal Worker Union Seeks Injunctive Relief After EO Nixes Collective Bargaining

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents nearly 160,000 federal government workers in 37 agencies, filed a motion for a preliminary injunction on April 4 in a federal court in the District of Columbia seeking to halt the impact of a March 27 executive order (EO) by President Donald J. Trump that the union says eliminates collective bargaining for approximately two-thirds of the federal workforce.
April 07, 2025
Appeal Over Biden Minimum Wage EO Deemed Moot After Trump Rescission

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated a February panel opinion finding a 2021 executive order (EO) by then-President Joseph R. Biden requiring various federal agencies to ensure that contractors and covered subcontractors pay specified workers a minimum of $15 per hour was “a valid exercise of the President’s authority under the FPASA [Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949]” after President Donald J. Trump revoked the EO, opining that “no live case or controversy” exists.
April 04, 2025
Split 6th Circuit Reverses Ruling That Worker With Guaranteed Pay Was ‘Salaried’

CINCINNATI — A worker who was guaranteed pay each week equivalent to eight hours of work and then was paid his hourly amount for any work performed in excess of eight hours was not properly classified as a “salaried” worker exempt from overtime pay, a split Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, reversing a trial court’s decision.
April 04, 2025
Unions, Others Oppose OPM’s Worker Reinstatements High Court Stay Application

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Unions and other groups that were granted a preliminary injunction directing the reinstatement of more than 16,000 probationary workers from six federal agencies argue in an April 3 response filed in the U.S. Supreme Court that the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and OPM’s acting director are not entitled to a stay as they will not be successful in overturning the injunction and failed to show irreparable injury.
April 04, 2025
Split Panel Affirms Vacatur Issued By Arbitrator Adding Salaried Workers To Union

DENVER — A 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority affirmed a Wyoming federal judge’s vacatur of an arbitration award that would have required salaried employees at an industrial refinery to join a union, finding that the arbitrator was authorized to determine only whether the employees could replace hourly workers in a companywide restructuring.
April 03, 2025
TROs Extended In 2 Law Firms’ Lawsuits Over Trump’s Targeted EOs

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two federal judges in the District of Columbia separately extended temporary restraining orders (TROs) granted in lawsuits by law firms targeted in executive orders (EOs) issued by President Donald J. Trump.
April 02, 2025
Veterans Groups File 3 Amicus Briefs In U.S. High Court Veterans’ Pay Class Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Legal representation and advocacy groups for veterans filed three amicus curiae briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the position of a class of veterans who are arguing that settlements of combat-related special compensation (CRSC) requests are controlled by the statute that directs secretaries of the various military branches to pay CRSC to eligible veterans and not the Barring Act.
April 02, 2025
Preliminary Injunction Halts Firing Of Multiple Federal Agency Workers In 20 States

BALTIMORE — The federal government may fire probationary workers en masse if it follows certain laws and regulations, but the actions taken in multiple federal agencies failed to follow such procedures, a federal judge in Maryland ruled April 1, partially granting a motion for a stay and preliminary injunction sought by 20 states.