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Mealey's Employment

June 28, 2024
Alabama Labor Secretary: Unemployment Exhaustion Requirement Not Preempted

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Alabama’s unemployment benefits statute’s exhaustion requirement is not preempted by 42 U.S. Code Section 1983, the Alabama secretary of labor argues in a respondent brief filed in the U.S. Supreme Court, opposing arguments by unemployment benefits applicants who allege that their complaint over delays in processing the large amount of applications filed due to the coronavirus pandemic was improperly dismissed for failure to exhaust administrative remedies.
June 28, 2024
FedEx Waives Response To Contractual Limitation Petition In Race Bias Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — FedEx Corporate Services Inc. waived its right to respond to a former employee’s petition for a writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court in part to decide whether a contractual provision cutting the limitation to sue under the Civil Rights Act of 1866 is enforceable; the petition challenges the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ reduction of a more than $366 million jury verdict against FedEx in the employee’s retaliation case to $248,619.57.
June 27, 2024
Former Juul Employee Must Arbitrate Gender Bias Claims, Judge Says

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted a motion by Juul Labs Inc. (JLI) to compel arbitration of a former employee’s claims that she faced gender discrimination after returning to work from maternity leave, finding that the former employee was bound by the arbitration agreement and failed to plead an exemption because she did not allege that sexual harassment occurred.
June 27, 2024
Pilot, Airlines Reach Settlement In USERRA Payless Leave Class Suit

SPOKANE, Wash. — Alaska Airlines Inc. and Horizon Air Industries Inc. and a commercial airline pilot and military reservist who brought a class complaint in a federal court in Washington alleging failure to pay pilots during short-term military leaves while providing pay during other types of leaves filed a joint status report stating that they expect to file a motion for preliminary approval of a class settlement within a month.
June 27, 2024
9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Uber Driver’s Race Bias Class Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — A survey of Uber Technologies Inc. drivers conducted by attorneys representing a former driver who brought a racial discrimination putative class complaint “fail[ed] to provide any plausible basis for finding a ‘disproportionately adverse effect on minorities,’” the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals opined in affirming a trial court’s dismissal of the case.
June 26, 2024
Unpaid Leave Subclass Certified In Vaccine Mandate Suit Against United Airlines

FORT WORTH, Texas — A federal judge in Texas partially granted a motion for class certification filed by United Airlines employees suing over the company’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, opining that the proposed subclass of employees who requested religious accommodations and were placed on unpaid leave satisfied Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3)’s superiority requirement, as well as Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(a)’s commonality and typicality requirements.
June 25, 2024
EEOC Approves $15M Settlement Of U.S. Marshals’ Class Race Bias Claims

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission granted final approval of a $15 million class settlement in a 30-year-long complaint accusing the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) of discriminating against African Americans when it came to recruitment, hiring and promotions related to deputy U.S. Marshal positions, the USMS announced June 24.
June 25, 2024
Transportation Company Appeals Rulings For EEOC In Disability Bias Case

OMAHA, Neb. — Werner Enterprises Inc. and a subsidiary, Drivers Management LLC, (together, Werner) filed a notice of appeal in a federal court in Nebraska following an amended judgment for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in a case in which the employer was found by a jury to have violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when it failed to hire and accommodate a deaf applicant.
June 25, 2024
Music Industry’s AI Suit Will Play In California After Transfer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Music publishers sued a California-based artificial intelligence company in Tennessee and must live with the fact that they have not shown that the fact that the company employs a few individuals who chose to work from home in Tennessee satisfies the jurisdiction hurdle, a federal judge in Tennessee said June 24.
June 25, 2024
Split Vermont High Court: Whistleblower Verdict For DOC Employer Must Be Vacated

MONTPELIER, Vt. — A Vermont trial court erred when it denied the Vermont Department of Corrections’ (DOC) motion for judgment as a matter of law filed during a whistleblower trial for a former superintendent who claimed that he was fired for reporting potential costs savings and understaffing, a divided Vermont Supreme Court ruled.
June 25, 2024
U.S. Supreme Court Will Hear Appeal On Differential Pay For Reservists

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 24 granted a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a U.S. Coast Guard reservist asking the justices to decide whether he was wrongly denied differential pay while performing active duty during a national emergency where his service was found to be not a part of a contingency operation.
June 24, 2024
U.S. Supreme Court Will Hear Appeal Over Disability Bias Rights Of Former Employee

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 24 granted a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a retired employee of a Florida city asking whether she has the right to sue under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for discrimination related to the distribution of fringe benefits that took effect after she was no longer employed.
June 21, 2024
Pharmacy Will Pay $515,000 To Settle EEOC’s Disability, Genetic Info Bias Lawsuit

DENVER — A complex medications pharmacy doing business in Colorado will pay $515,000 and provide other equitable relief to end a complaint by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accusing the former owner of the business of unlawfully inquiring about employees’ disabilities and genetic information and pressuring them to use its pharmacy services, according to a signed consent decree filed in a federal court in Colorado.
June 21, 2024
California Urges High Court To Not Review Arbitrability Of Uber, Lyft Wage Claims

WASHINGTON, D.C. — California on June 20 filed a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court opposing petitions for writs of certiorari filed by Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc., arguing that a state appellate court properly affirmed the denial of Uber and Lyft’s attempt to compel arbitration of state officials’ lawsuits against them for allegedly misclassifying drivers in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).
June 19, 2024
Judge Rejects AI Hiring Firm’s Attack On Class Jurisdiction Ruling

CHICAGO — An artificial intelligence hiring platform’s contacts in Illinois satisfy Ford Motor Co. v. Mont. Eighth Jud. Dist. Ct. and provide for jurisdiction in the state, a federal judge said June 18 in denying a motion for reconsideration of a ruling denying a motion to dismiss.
June 19, 2024
California Class Complaint Accuses Apple Of Paying Women Less Than Men

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple Inc. “systematically” pays females employees lower wages than similarly situated male employees, a putative class complaint filed in a California court by two female employees alleges.
June 18, 2024
2nd Circuit Vacates Addition Of Former Subsidiary In Wage Class Case, Remands

NEW YORK — A trial court erred when it joined an employer’s former subsidiary as a necessary party in a wage-and-hour putative class suit and when it dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA), the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in a summary order, vacating the judgment in the former employee’s case and remanding for further proceedings.
June 18, 2024
Cheese Makers, Workers Settle Wage Claims After Verdict For Employers

FRESNO, Calif. — A $3.5 million settlement negotiated between Leprino Foods Co. and Leprino Foods Dairy Products Co. (together, Leprino) and workers whose wage-and-hour class claims resulted in a jury verdict for Leprino was granted final approval by a federal magistrate judge in California on June 17.
June 18, 2024
U.S. High Court Won’t Review Separating Individual, Non-Individual PAGA Claims

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 17 denied petitions in two cases raising questions about separating individual and non-individual claims filed under the California Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA).
June 18, 2024
Federal Judge: EEOC Exceeded Authority With Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Rule

LAKE CHARLES, La. — One business day after an Arkansas federal judge ruled that Tennessee and 16 other states lack standing to sue the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission challenging the portions of regulations “to carry out” the Pregnancy Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) that deal with abortion, a federal judge in Louisiana on June 17 partially granted preliminary injunction motions by Louisiana and Mississippi and several Catholic entities postponing the effective date of the EEOC’s final rule that implements and interprets the PWFA.
June 18, 2024
$2.5M Wage-And-Hour Settlement For Arizona Chauffeurs Preliminarily OK’d

PHOENIX — A federal judge in Arizona granted preliminary approval of a $2.5 million class settlement between employers and chauffer drivers who say that they were improperly denied minimum, straight and overtime wages.
June 17, 2024
9th Circuit: Class Scope Ambiguity ‘Should Be Resolved In Favor Of Tolling’

SAN FRANCISCO — Where a class definition is narrowed, any dispute or ambiguity regarding the applicability to certain plaintiffs “should be resolved in favor of tolling so that bystander members of the class need not rush to file separate actions to protect their rights,” the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled June 14, answering a question the panel stated was one of first impression.
June 17, 2024
U.S. Supreme Court Grants Petition Seeking Standard Of Proof For FLSA Exemptions

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A petition for a writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court justices to decide whether the standard of proof for an exemption to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) “is a mere preponderance of the evidence” or “clear and convincing evidence” was granted June 17 (E.M.D. Sales, Inc., et al. v. Faustino Sanchez Carrera, et al., No. 23-217, U.S. Sup.).
June 13, 2024
U.S. High Court Finds Winter Test Appropriate For NLRB Injunctive Relief

WASHINGTON, D.C. — District Courts must apply the four-factor test in Winter v. Nat. Res. Def. Council when considering a preliminary injunction request by the National Labor Relations Board under Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 13 in an appeal by Starbucks Corp.; however, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson opined in a partial dissent that the majority’s ruling ignored the second step in the two-part inquiry in Hecht Co. v. Bowles.
June 12, 2024
5th Circuit Grants Airline Stay Of ‘Religious-Liberty Training’ Pending Appeal

NEW ORLEANS — An order that Southwest Airlines Co. lawyers attend “religious-liberty training” as a sanction in a flight attendant’s case over her firing for online speech “likely exceeded the district court’s civil contempt authority,” a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, granting Southwest’s motion for a stay pending appeal.