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

Mealey's Employment

August 11, 2025
Crane Company Settles EEOC Racial Discrimination Case; 5 Employees Get $525,000

FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas federal judge has approved a consent decree between the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a Texas construction crane rental company under which the company will pay five employees $525,000 for failing to respond to complaints about racial harassment and for retaliating against an employee who complained about the behavior.
August 08, 2025
10th Circuit: Rule 702 Ruling Wrongly Excluded Evidence, Not Just Expert Witness

DENVER — A district court incorrectly expanded a ruling on a motion to exclude under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 to bar a man who alleges that a former employer violated trade secret laws from presenting evidence and fact witnesses on lost wages damages at trial, the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held.
August 08, 2025
7th Circuit Sets Framework On Propriety Of Notice To Proposed Collective

CHICAGO — Turning away from the approach associated with Lusardi v. Xerox Corp. but declining to exactly follow the two sister circuits that created alternate processes, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals instituted “a uniform, workable framework for assessing the propriety of notice to a proposed collective” in Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) cases.
August 07, 2025
5th Circuit Affirms Attorney Fee, Cost Award, Garnishment In FLSA Case

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has affirmed a $188,164 attorney fee and cost award in consolidated wage lawsuits against a home health care provider, finding that the award was reasonable, that the trial court did not err in granting the plaintiffs’ motion for garnishment and that the defendant’s due process rights were not violated by the fee award.
August 07, 2025
Distillery Asks High Court To Rule On Appropriate Review Of NLRB Impasse Decision

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A distillery asks the U.S. Supreme Court in its petition for a writ of certiorari to decide the scope of a court’s review of a decision by the National Labor Relations Board and to decide when an employer is excused from bargaining to impasse after a split District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the NLRB’s determination that the employer committed six unfair labor practices when attempting to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement.
August 06, 2025
$26M Settlement In Mastercard Pay Discrimination Class Suit Wins Final Approval

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Mastercard Inc. will pay $26 million to settle a class and collective action alleging that it systematically treated female, Black and Hispanic employees less favorably than white or male employees performing similar work in violation of equal pay and antidiscrimination laws; a federal judge in New York granted final approval to the settlement, finding the relief “significant and meaningful.”
August 06, 2025
Stay Renewed In Peace Nonprofit Workers’ Suit Over Government’s ‘Bloodletting’

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A stay of a lawsuit by former U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) employees who accuse the federal government of breaking in and taking over the headquarters of the nonprofit before dismantling programs was extended Aug. 5 by a federal judge in the District of Columbia, pending further developments in a related case brought by USIP, its board and staff challenging their removal at the direction of President Donald J. Trump.
August 05, 2025
Federal Judge Grants Joint Motion Nixing 1980s-Era Hiring Limitation Agreement

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia granted a joint motion to dissolve a more than 40-year-old consent decree the federal government deemed racially discriminatory and “no longer in the public interest” that allegedly tied federal officials’ hands to hire the best, most qualified employees through elimination of a merit-based test because of “its adverse impact upon blacks and Hispanics.”
August 04, 2025
7th Circuit Rules Termination Notice Sufficient In Withdrawal Liability Row

CHICAGO — Ruling in part that an employer provided sufficient notice that it was terminating a collective bargaining agreement (CBA), the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeal vacated a $166,350.75 attorney fee award and reversed summary judgment that had been entered against an employer that withdrew from a multiemployer pension plan.
August 04, 2025
9th Circuit Stays Preliminary Injunction In Collective Bargaining EO Case

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 1 stayed pending appeal a trial court’s preliminary injunction issued in a case by six unions suing over a March executive order that limited certain federal workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively.
August 04, 2025
4th Circuit: Fired Meat Manager’s Food Safety Claims Could Have Led To Termination

RICHMOND, Va. — A fired Kraft Heinz Foods production manager has grounds to argue that complaints he raised about food safety in violation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) at the South Carolina plant where he worked could have contributed to his termination, a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled in vacating a summary judgment order and remanding the case back to the trial court.
August 01, 2025
D.C. Circuit Declines Reconsideration Of Stay In Collective Bargaining EO Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals declined to reconsider its June 20 order staying a trial court’s preliminary injunction in a union’s case challenging a March executive order (EO) that eliminated the collective bargaining rights of various agencies and agency subdivisions.
August 01, 2025
3rd Circuit Reverses Dismissal Of N.J. Farm’s Suit Over Migrant Worker Fines

PHILADELPHIA — A Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed a trial court’s dismissal of a New Jersey family farm’s claims that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) unlawfully assessed hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines through in-house administrative proceedings for alleged violations related to the federal H-2A visa program for migrant workers, stating the case should be “decided by an Article III court” based on a 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision.
July 31, 2025
Maryland Legal Services Nonprofit Sues EEOC Over ‘Trans Exclusion Policy’

BALTIMORE — A Maryland nonprofit legal services organization that serves the LGBTQ+ community is suing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over its new “Trans Exclusion Policy” through which it has ceased to carry out charge investigations regarding all gender-identity discrimination claims outside of hiring, firing and promotion.
July 31, 2025
Fired Copyrights Register Denied Preliminary Injunction For No Irreparable Harm

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office who was purportedly fired in May by President Donald J. Trump failed to show that she will be irreparably harmed without a preliminary injunction, a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled July 30, denying a motion for that relief.
July 31, 2025
Prima Facie Discrimination Case Not Established In COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal Suit

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Finding that a former employee had failed to establish a prima facie case of failure to accommodate her religious beliefs or of racial discrimination, a North Carolina federal judge granted the summary judgment motion of her employer in the employee’s lawsuit stemming from her termination for declining to become vaccinated for COVID-19.
July 30, 2025
Driver AI Surveillance Data Collection Class Suit Settled With Lytx For $4.25M

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — A $4.25 million class settlement between a class of drivers and a technology company was granted final approval by a federal judge in Illinois ending a lawsuit that accused a transportation company and a machine vision and artificial technology company of collecting and holding truck drivers’ biometric data when scanning their faces via a camera that employs artificial intelligence to monitor drivers in violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA); the transportation company previously paid a settlement of $56,800 for the benefit of 71 settlement class members.
July 30, 2025
Truck Drivers’ BIPA Claims Over In-Cab Cameras Partly Remanded

CHICAGO — Two truckers’ claims against their former employer under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) were partly remanded for lack of jurisdiction under Article III of the U.S. Constitution, with an Illinois federal judge retaining jurisdiction over part of the claims while denying the trucking company’s motion to dismiss.
July 30, 2025
5th Circuit Panel Orders Reinstatement Of Fired Mississippi School Worker

NEW ORLEANS — A fired Mississippi school district employee will be reinstated after a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that a trial court failed to address future reinstatement opportunities and prior circuit decisions in reversing and remanding denial of the employee’s request for reinstatement or front pay.
July 29, 2025
Trial Court Denies Stay Of Ruling For Removed FTC Commissioner

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia denied a motion by President Donald J. Trump and Federal Trade Commission officials to stay pending appeal a summary judgment ruling for one of two FTC commissioners purportedly removed from the FTC without cause in March, writing that “the court refuses to allow Defendants to continue breaking the law while this litigation proceeds.”
July 29, 2025
1 Of 2 Suits Over USAID Layoffs Dismissed For Lack Of Jurisdiction

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia in a single opinion granted a motion to dismiss one complaint brought by two unions and one humanitarian group challenging the placement of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees on administrative leave, citing a lack of jurisdiction, and denied in a second similar complaint a union’s motion for preliminary injunction, citing a “likely” lack of jurisdiction.
July 29, 2025
Judgment Against Fired State Farm Employee Who Aided Disabled Coworker Reversed

CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority ruled that a fired State Farm employee who helped a disabled coworker seek an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodation can pursue retaliation claims pursuant to the ADA and Ohio law “on a theory of vicarious liability” because of a “supervisor’s alleged bias,” reversing a trial court’s summary judgment order in favor of State Farm.
July 29, 2025
Tow Truck Driver, Employer Stipulate To Dismissal Of Wage-And-Hour Class Suit

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — A tow truck driver and the employer he accused of violating New York Labor Law by failing to pay timely wages and unlawfully deducting wages stipulated to dismissal of the putative class complaint in a federal court in New York with prejudice following an undisclosed settlement.
July 25, 2025
Judge Severs Fee Provision In Cruise Company’s Employment Arbitration

MIAMI — A Florida federal judge on July 24 granted in part and denied in part a cruise company’s motion to compel arbitration of an indigent Nicaraguan employee’s claims related to an injury sustained while aboard the company’s vessel, severing from the agreement fee-splitting provisions that would bar the employee from participating due to his inability to pay.
July 24, 2025
Florida High Court Says Former Employee’s Complaint Against Employer Can Proceed

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A former employee’s failure to file a complaint with the Florida Commission on Human Relations and failure to reference that the discrimination and retaliation claims were brought under the Florida Civil Rights Act (FCRA) did not doom his right to file a civil suit against the employer because he filed the complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which has a work-sharing agreement with the commission, and the FCRA does not require a claimant to state the specific law that was violated when filing a complaint with the EEOC or commission, the Florida Supreme Court said in affirming an appellate court’s decision.