Mealey's Employment : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Employment

February 26, 2025
Government Given Extension To Respond To Rehearing Petition In EO Authority Suit

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted the federal government an extension until March 13 to file a response to a petition for rehearing en banc by three states after an appellate panel ruled that 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].”
February 25, 2025
2 Members Of Federal Oversight Board Allege Removals Were Unlawful

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two members of the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) filed a complaint on Feb. 24 in District of Columbia federal court accusing President Donald J. Trump of removing them without cause, which threatens to silence the “independent advice” members of the board provide to Congress and the reporting members provide to Congress and the public “on how the government balances national security activities with privacy and civil liberties protections.”
February 25, 2025
Putative Class Members Seek Intervention, Stay In Deferred Compensation Row

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Arguing ongoing impairment of their right to arbitration, seven former Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. financial advisers moved in North Carolina federal court to intervene and to stay all proceedings in a putative class action in a dispute that the plaintiff argues concerns deferred compensation.
February 25, 2025
Nike Workers Who Filed Biased Pay, Promotions Suit File Notice Of Settlement

PORTLAND, Ore. — Four named Nike Inc. workers who brought a class and collective complaint accusing the athletic footwear and apparel company of “devalu[ing]” and “demean[ing]” female employees by paying them less than their male counterparts and passing them over for promotions filed a notice in a federal court in Oregon that they have finalized a settlement agreement as to their individual claims.
February 24, 2025
Federal Government Appeals As Stay Of TRO Denied In Ousted MSPB Chair’s Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The secretary of the Treasury and other government officials being sued by the former chair of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) following her termination filed a notice of appeal after a temporary restraining order (TRO) was granted by a federal judge in the District of Columbia; a second decision was issued the same day by the trial court judge denying a stay of the TRO, which required the chair’s reinstatement.
February 24, 2025
TRO Dissolved, Preliminary Injunction Denied In Suit Over USAID Layoffs

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two unions and a nonprofit failed to demonstrate in a case challenging the placement of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees on administrative leave “that further preliminary injunctive relief is warranted,” a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled Feb. 21, dissolving a previously issued temporary restraining order (TRO) and denying a motion for a preliminary injunction.
February 24, 2025
Medical Transport Worker Seeking Wages For COVID Screening Survives Dismissal

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge denied in part and granted in part a motion to dismiss by a university medical center in a lawsuit brought by a former patient transport employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and state wage laws seeking compensation for time spent being screened and tested for COVID-19 before her shift and for a week she went unpaid because of an interruption in a payroll system.
February 24, 2025
High Court Majority Holds Application In Special Counsel’s Case In Abeyance

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court majority on Feb. 21 held in abeyance until Feb. 26 an application by the federal government challenging a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the removal of Hampton Dellinger from his position as special counsel and requesting an immediate administrative stay.
February 21, 2025
Judge Denies TRO In Unions’ ‘Mass Firings’ Suit, Rules Claims Must Go Before FLRA

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Claims by five unions that represent employees in dozens of federal agencies and departments challenging recent executive actions taken to slash the size of the federal workforce belong before the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled Feb. 20, denying the unions’ motion for a temporary restraining order and request for a preliminary injunction.
February 21, 2025
2nd Circuit Upholds Pension Ruling For NBA Ref Terminated Over Vaccine Requirement

NEW YORK — Issuing a Feb. 20 summary order in favor of a former NBA Services Corp. (NSC) referee who was terminated for not being vaccinated against COVID-19, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed that the termination meant he qualified for a pension payment of nearly $3 million even though he has a separate pending discrimination lawsuit over the termination.
February 21, 2025
Split U.S. High Court Allows For Section 1983 Claims In Unemployment Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Alabama can’t effectively immunize state officials from claims by unemployed workers brought under 42 U.S. Code Section 1983 for the alleged unlawful delay in processing their unemployment benefits by requiring the claimants to first satisfy the administrative-exhaustion requirement in Alabama Code Section 25-4-95, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled Feb. 21.
February 21, 2025
Judge: Accommodating Workers’ Religious Objections To Vaccination An Undue Burden

EUGENE, Ore. — An Oregon federal judge granted the motion for summary judgment of a dental practice and its president in a lawsuit by former employees who were terminated for refusing a COVID-19 vaccination and alleged that the defendants failed to accommodate their religious beliefs in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and state law.
February 21, 2025
8th Circuit Finds States Have Standing To Sue EEOC Over Pregnant Workers Act

ST. LOUIS — Tennessee and 16 other states that sued the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission challenging the portions of regulations “to carry out” the Pregnancy Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) that deal with abortion have standing to bring suit under Article III of the U.S. Constitution, an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Feb. 20, reversing a trial court’s ruling.
February 21, 2025
9th Circuit Affirms Attorney Fees For Employees Sued In Trade Secret Misuse Case

SAN FRANCISCO — After affirming a summary judgment order more than three years earlier, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed an Arizona federal judge’s order granting attorney fees to former employees of a financial retirement company who were sued for alleged misappropriation of trade secrets and confidential information, finding that the claims arose out of a contract between the employees and the company.
February 20, 2025
Association For USAID Contract Workers Seeks TRO After Funding Halted

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A voluntary association of U.S. citizen personal services contractors (USPSCs) employed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) filed a motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) on Feb. 19 in a federal court in the District of Columbia requesting that USPSCs be returned to the terms and conditions of employment they had prior to Jan. 20 when President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order that paused the United States’ “foreign development assistance.”
February 20, 2025
Unions Sue OPM, Director Seeking To Enjoin En Masse Firings Of Federal Workers

SAN FRANCISCO — An order by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Director Charles Ezell for “federal agencies [to] terminate [probationary] employees en masse” violates the U.S. Constitution and statutory law, four unions that represent federal workers allege in a complaint filed Feb. 19 in a federal court in California.
February 20, 2025
Washington City Employees Fired For Refusing COVID-19 Vaccination Appeal Dismissal

SEATTLE — Several former city employees who were terminated after they refused to become vaccinated for COVID-19 filed a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking review of a decision of a Washington federal court, which granted the city and mayor’s motion to dismiss, having concluded that the employees were unable to establish that they experienced a violation of any fundamental rights that would create a cause of action against the city (Michael Brock, et al. v Bellingham, et al., No. 24-850, W.D. Wash.).
February 20, 2025
3 Nonprofits Sue President, Federal Government Agencies Over DEI, Gender EOs

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three executive orders (EOs) issued by President Donald J. Trump on his first two days in office regarding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and gender identity are ultra vires presidential actions and violate the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), alleges a complaint filed Feb. 19 in a federal court in the District of Columbia by three nonprofits who help with access to employment, housing, education and health care and state that they have received stop-work orders or termination notices.
February 20, 2025
5 Federal Workers’ Class Suit Alleges Info Access Is Largest Breach Since Watergate

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Federal officials’ decision to allow individuals from outside the U.S. government to access the “personal sensitive information” (PSI) of millions of federal workers “is the biggest breach of American trust by political actors since Watergate,” five federal employees allege in a class complaint filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia.
February 20, 2025
Preliminary Approval Of $1.15M Lane Bryant Wage Class Settlement Denied

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal judge in California denied preliminary approval of a $1,150,000 class and Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) settlement in a case against a plus size clothing retailer, opining that the parties “artificially lowered” the potential value of the PAGA claim and failed to provide sufficient information for the court to determine whether preliminary approval was appropriate.
February 19, 2025
Federal Judge Excludes Expert In Vaccine Mandate Case, Grants Summary Judgment

PHILADELPHIA — An expert retained by a group of former employees at a school who were fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine cannot testify because the “misconstruction of the exhibits cited in his report undermine his reliability as it pertains to vaccine efficacy,” a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled, also granting summary judgment to the school.
February 19, 2025
Removed Special Counsel Opposes High Court Application Challenging TRO

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An application to the U.S. Supreme Court by the federal government challenging a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the removal of Hampton Dellinger from his position as special counsel and requesting an immediate administrative stay should be denied as the government can’t show that the high court is likely to review and reverse a divided appellate panel’s ruling in the case, Dellinger argues in his Feb. 18 opposition.
February 19, 2025
3 Complaints By Unions, Others Over Formation Of DOGE Consolidated

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia in Feb. 18 minute order consolidated three complaints alleging that the formation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).
February 18, 2025
Split D.C. Circuit Dismisses Appeal Of TRO In Special Counsel’s Removal Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A split District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 15 dismissed for lack of jurisdiction a second appeal by the federal government and dismissed as moot the government’s emergency motion to stay a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the removal of Hampton Dellinger from his position as special counsel.
February 18, 2025
TRO Denied In Federal Workers’ Privacy Suit Over OPM ‘Test’ Emails

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Federal workers suing under pseudonyms who accuse the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) of failing to conduct and publish a privacy impact assessment (PIA) before allegedly sending out “test” emails the workers claim are being used to collect information on them failed to show “that they are likely to incur some irreparable injury” without a temporary restraining order (TRO), a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled Feb. 17, denying a renewed TRO motion in the putative class case.