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

Mealey's Employment

June 03, 2025
Dismissal Of BIPA Suit Denied; Amendment Limiting Damages Is Not Retroactive

CHICAGO — An August 2024 amendment to the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) that limits the amount of damages an individual may recover was a change rather than a clarification and was not retroactive, a federal judge in that state ruled, denying a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction filed by the operators of medical facilities accused by employees of collecting and storing their information.
June 03, 2025
Government Files New High Court Stay Application In Federal Worker RIF Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government on June 2 filed a new application to stay in the U.S. Supreme Court after a trial court issued a preliminary injunction in a case challenging layoffs of federal workers; the application was filed less than two weeks after the government withdrew its initial application in the case seeking a stay of a temporary restraining order (TRO).
June 03, 2025
High Court Majority Says It Won’t Hear Houston Adult Club Race Discrimination Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. Supreme Court majority on June 2 denied a petition for writ of certiorari filed by an African-American female entertainer who asked the court to determine whether the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was correct in determining that her allegations of civil rights violations by two Houston clubs for refusing her entry to work on multiple occasions because of her race were barred by the statute of limitations.
June 03, 2025
Aerospace Engineering Firms’ Settlements Granted Final OK In No-Poaching Suit

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A federal judge in Connecticut issued a pair of orders granting final approval of approximately $60.5 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 and awarding attorney fees, costs and service awards.
May 30, 2025
Ex-Employees’ Claims Over Duty-Free Shops’ Data Breach Partly Survive Dismissal

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — Negligence and breach of implied contracts brought by two former employees against the operators of airport duty-free shops may proceed, a New York federal judge ruled, while dismissing unjust enrichment and fiduciary duty claims related to a 2023 data breach.
May 30, 2025
5th Circuit Denies NLRB’s Attempt To Revive Decades-Old Damages Order Dismissal

NEW ORLEANS — A divided Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel denied all statutory and procedural arguments made by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in an attempt to dust off and enforce a decades-old dismissed order that would have required a small Louisiana plumbing company to pay more than $100,000 in damages for laying off three employees during a failed unionization effort and instead granted the company’s cross-petition for review.
May 29, 2025
Split 5th Circuit Again Denies Petition For Review Of NLRB’s Complaint Withdrawal

NEW ORLEANS — Ruling for a second time on a case remanded by the U.S. Supreme Court, a divided Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on May 28 denied an employer’s petition for review of a decision by the National Labor Relations Board that an acting general counsel may withdraw an unfair labor practice complaint that his predecessor issued against a union.
May 29, 2025
Judge Dismisses ‘Flamin’ Hot’ Cheetos Inventor’s Defamation, Discrimination Claims

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge on May 28 granted PepsiCo Inc. and Frito-Lay Inc.’s motions to strike and to dismiss a lawsuit brought against them by a former executive who says he invented the “Flamin’ Hot” variety of Cheetos snacks and claimed that the company defamed him and cost him the opportunity to be featured in a documentary by casting doubt on his inventorship claims.
May 29, 2025
Ex-Employee’s Beef With Meatpacker’s Data Breach Response Sent To Arbitration

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Finding a beef producer’s arbitration agreement to be binding on a former employee that sued the company over a 2024 data breach, a Georgia federal judge directed the plaintiff to submit her putative negligence and breach of contract class claims to an arbitrator.
May 29, 2025
Register Of Copyrights Denied TRO In Suit Challenging ‘Purported’ Removal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) filed by the register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office seeking to enjoin her removal was denied from the bench by a federal judge in the District of Columbia on May 28.
May 29, 2025
5th Circuit: FCC Lacks Authority To Require Employment Demographics Data

NEW ORLEANS — The Federal Communications Commission lacks the statutory authority to require radio and television broadcasters to disclose employment demographics data, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, vacating a February 2024 FCC order.
May 28, 2025
Trump’s EO Targeting WilmerHale ‘Struck Down,’ Declared ‘Unconstitutional’

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on May 27 dismissed with prejudice three counts brought by Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP in its lawsuit challenging President Donald J. Trump’s March executive order (EO) targeting the firm and partially granted WilmerHale’s summary judgment motion, declaring the EO “unconstitutional.”
May 28, 2025
Federal Judge: Jenner & Block Executive Order Violates The U.S. Constitution

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An executive order (EO) issued by President Donald J. Trump in March targeting Jenner & Block LLP “seeks to chill legal representation the administration doesn’t like” and “violates the Constitution,” a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled, enjoining the EO’s “operation in full.”
May 28, 2025
Tyson Supervisors, Executives Still On Hook For Claims In COVID Worker Deaths Case

DES MOINES, Iowa — Claims alleging gross negligence and fraud against supervisors and executives of Tyson Foods Inc. and Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. by families of workers who died from COVID-19 can be litigated after an Iowa Supreme Court panel reversed and remanded a dismissal.
May 28, 2025
DOL Rescinds Guidance That Advised ‘Extreme Care’ On Crypto In 401(k) Plans

WASHINGTON, D.C. — March 2022 guidance that directed fiduciaries to use “extreme care before they consider adding a cryptocurrency option to a 401(k) plan's investment menu for plan participants” has been rescinded, federal regulators announced May 28.
May 28, 2025
Golden Corral, Employees Settle Data Breach Class Action For $1.85 Million

RALEIGH, N.C. — A $1.85 million settlement of class claims over a 2013 data breach experienced by Golden Corral Corp. received final approval from a North Carolina federal judge, who deemed the restaurant chain’s agreement with a class of employees whose personally identifiable information (PII) was compromised in the breach to be “fair, reasonable, adequate, and in the best interests of the” class.
May 27, 2025
Government Withdraws High Court Stay Application In Federal Worker RIF Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald J. Trump and other federal government officials notified the U.S. Supreme Court via a May 23 letter that they were withdrawing in light of a May 22 preliminary injunction order their application for a stay of a trial court’s temporary restraining order (TRO) that halted further approval of reduction-in-force (RIF) notice periods by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and orders by U.S. DOGE Service for federal agencies to reduce programs and staff.
May 27, 2025
Register Of Copyrights Sues, Seeks TRO After ‘Purported’ Removal By Trump

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office filed a complaint and a motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) in a federal court in the District of Columbia challenging her “purported” removal by President Donald J. Trump “without any authorization from Congress or advice and consent from the Senate.”
May 27, 2025
Federal Government Seeks Stay Of Order Voiding Trump’s Removal Of USIP Staff

WASHINGTON, D.C.— The federal government filed an emergency motion in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 23 for an administrative stay and for a stay pending appeal following a trial court’s summary judgment ruling for the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) and its board and staff in a case in which they challenged their removal at the direction of President Donald J. Trump and the transfer of USIP property to the General Services Administration (GSA).
May 27, 2025
2nd Circuit Finds It Has No Jurisdiction To Review State Labor Class Judgment

NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that it lacked jurisdiction to entertain an appeal of a judgment on state law wage and hour class claims because the trial court’s dismissal of the plaintiffs’ unadjudicated Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) claims to allow for intermediate appeal under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b) was conditional.
May 27, 2025
Federal Government Argues For Stay After Department Of Education RIF Enjoined

BOSTON — A trial court’s preliminary injunction in two consolidated cases challenging the alleged dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) that halts a reduction-in-force (RIF) must be stayed pending appeal as it “mandates the continued employment of over a thousand employees” when the court lacks “Article III jurisdiction to superintend the Department’s operations based on its disagreement with politically accountable officials about appropriate staffing levels,” the secretary of Education and other government officials argue in a reply in support of an emergency motion filed May 26 in the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
May 27, 2025
Chief Justice Roberts Stays Discovery Orders In Challenge Of DOGE’s Authority

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts Jr. issued an order on May 23 staying two trial court discovery orders in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case regarding U.S. DOGE Service’s (DOGE or USDS) authority pending further order by the Supreme Court.
May 27, 2025
Federal Judge: U.S. Treasury Department Lacks Standing To Seek CBA Termination

COVINGTON, Ky. — The U.S. Department of Treasury lacks standing to bring a lawsuit against a union that represents more than 2,000 Internal Revenue Service employees seeking to rescind or repudiate a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) pursuant to a March presidential executive order (EO), a federal judge in Kentucky ruled, dismissing the complaint.
May 23, 2025
This Time, Judge Denies Preliminary Injunction In ERISA Illinois Temp Worker Row

CHICAGO — Rejecting a motion supported by nine organizations that filed a combined amicus curiae brief, an Illinois federal judge who previously issued a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of an earlier version of an Illinois temporary worker law on May 22 declined to grant a preliminary injunction for the latest version, saying that the plaintiff trade associations and staffing agencies didn’t show that their Employee Retirement Income Security Act preemption argument is likely to succeed on the merits.
May 23, 2025
OSHA, N.J. Bakery Reach $180K Settlement After Employee Finger Amputations

PATERSON, N.J. — A New Jersey commercial bakery will pay a $180,000 penalty and implement a series of health and safety measures through a settlement agreement reached with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) over the bakery’s failure to address hazards identified in a citation after an employee suffered partial finger amputations.