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Mealey's Employment

  • December 12, 2024

    Religious Discrimination In, Disability Discrimination Out In COVID Vaccine Suit

    PORTLAND, Ore. — In a lawsuit by a former employee alleging that her employer failed to make a good faith effort to accommodate her religious beliefs and medical disability, both of which led her to decline a company-mandated COVID-19 vaccination and caused her dismissal, an Oregon federal judge on Dec. 11 adopted the findings and recommendation of a magistrate judge and granted the employer’s motion for judgment on the pleadings as to the employee’s disability discrimination claim but denied the motion as to the employee’s religious discrimination claim.

  • December 12, 2024

    Judge: Assignee Lacks Standing To Recover Emotional Distress Damages From Insurer

    CHICAGO — A California federal judge held that an assignee cannot establish standing under California Insurance Code Section 11580(b)(2) to recover her emotional distress damages from an insurer as judgment creditor of her former employer, granting the insurer’s motion to dismiss her lawsuit arising from an underlying discrimination judgment in her favor but allowing the assignee leave to amend one of her claims.

  • December 12, 2024

    Federal Judge: Multiple Tenure Protections For NLRB Judges Are Unconstitutional

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — National Labor Relations Board administrative law judges (ALJs) are “‘officers of the United States’” and must not protected from presidential removal via multiple levels of protection, a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled in a case brought by a Massachusetts acute-care hospital accused by the union representing its nurses of violating various provisions of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

  • December 12, 2024

    6th Circuit Reinstates State Farm Worker’s Hostile Environment, Retaliation Claims

    CINCINNATI — A former State Farm Insurance claims manager who alleges she was fired after telling other workers about a racist letter she and others received and not because of emails containing confidential information that she sent to outside addresses may proceed with her hostile work environment and retaliation claims, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, finding a sufficient showing of pretext for the firing.

  • December 11, 2024

    Employee Seeks Reconsideration Of Ruling On Retroactivity Of BIPA Limits Act

    CHICAGO — A worker moved for reconsideration of a federal judge’s ruling that an August amendment to Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) that places limits on an individual’s recovery for certain data release violations applies retroactively, citing a Nov. 22 ruling he says reached the opposite conclusion.

  • December 11, 2024

    Granite Installer Awarded Reduced Attorney Fees After Age Bias Verdict

    PITTSBURGH — A granite installer awarded nearly $80,000 for compensatory damages and front and back pay on age bias claims by a federal jury was awarded more than twice that in attorney fees and costs by a federal judge in Pennsylvania.

  • December 11, 2024

    Split 3rd Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Class Suit Over Cannabis Use Firing

    PHILADELPHIA — A New Jersey law prohibiting the firing of workers for cannabis use does not create a private cause of action, a split Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, declining an alternative request to certify a question on the law and a question regarding pre-employment discrimination to the New Jersey Supreme Court.

  • December 11, 2024

    Employer’s Rehearing Request Denied; Default Judgment Upheld In Wage-And-Hour Suit

    ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc filed by a steel fabricator after an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that there was no error when a trial court entered default judgment against the employer in a collective wage-and-hour lawsuit as a sanction due to a finding of bad faith during discovery.

  • December 11, 2024

    8th Circuit Reverses Summary Judgment For Hospital On Chair’s Speech Claim

    ST. PAUL, Minn. — An Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed summary judgment for a hospital on a former department chair’s claim of First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution retaliation, finding that there was evidence that social media posts were discussed leading up to the chair’s demotion.

  • December 11, 2024

    Employee Seeks Reconsideration Of Ruling On Retroactivity Of BIPA Limits Act

    CHICAGO — A worker moved for reconsideration of a federal judge’s ruling that an August amendment to Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) that places limits on an individual’s recovery for certain data release violations applies retroactively, citing a Nov. 22 ruling he says reached the opposite conclusion.

  • December 11, 2024

    U.S. High Court Requests Response From Former Detainee To County’s Wage Petition

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court asked a former detainee to respond to 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).

  • December 10, 2024

    Straight Worker’s High Court Bias Brief Challenges ‘Background Circumstances’

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A heterosexual worker who claims that she was discriminated against due to her sexual orientation tells the U.S. Supreme Court in her Dec. 9 petitioner brief that the requirement that she present sufficient “background circumstances” is placed only “on majority-group plaintiffs” and that such a “heightened evidentiary burden contravenes” the text of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

  • December 10, 2024

    Supreme Court Justices Hear Arguments On Differential Pay For Reservists

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Civilian employees who serve in the reserves and are “called to active duty under any provision of law must receive differential pay” when the call comes during a national emergency, the attorney representing a U.S. Coast Guard reservist told the U.S. Supreme Court during oral arguments heard Dec. 9.

  • December 03, 2024

    COMMENTARY: The Future Of Work: Exploring The Employment And Data Protection Law Implications Of The Use Of Artificial Intelligence (AI) In European Workplaces

    By Matthew Howse, Louise Skinner, Vishnu Shankar and William Mallin

  • December 09, 2024

    Union, Others Oppose Professors’ 1st Amendment Representation Petition

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The union representing City University of New York (CUNY) professors, the school itself and others filed two responses in the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 6 opposing the professors’ arguments in a petition for a writ of certiorari that their First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution rights are being violated as they are required to belong to a bargaining unit they accuse of engaging in anti-Semitic and anti-Israel conduct.

  • December 09, 2024

    Split Alaska High Court Reverses Finding For Worker In Pay Eligibility Dispute

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An Alaska superior court failed to correctly apply the just cause standard in Braun v. Alaska Commercial Fishing & Agriculture Bank in a case by a former state employee who alleged that she was wrongly fired after being accused of misrepresenting where she resided, a split Alaska Supreme Court ruled, reversing the trial court’s decision.

  • December 05, 2024

    Solicitor General Will Participate In Disability Rights High Court Arguments

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court granted a motion by the U.S. solicitor general to participate in oral arguments that will be held in January in an appeal 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 her employment ended.

  • December 05, 2024

    Staffing Agency Settles No-Poach, Wage-Fixing Claims With Illinois For $1.8M

    CHICAGO — An Illinois judge approved a $1.8 million settlement to be paid by a temporary staffing agency, one of four defendants in a case alleging that they engaged in a coordinated effort to execute and enforce wage-fixing and no-poach agreements.

  • December 04, 2024

    Jackson Hewitt $10.8M Wage Suppression Class Settlement Granted Final OK

    NEWARK, N.J. — A federal judge in New Jersey granted final approval of a $10.8 million settlement in a class complaint by individuals who worked for a tax preparation franchisor or franchisees and alleged that there was a conspiracy to suppress compensation via no-poach agreements and issued an order granting attorney fees, expenses and service awards.

  • December 03, 2024

    Texas Attorney Sanctioned Over AI’s Use In Employment Termination Case

    BEAUMONT, Texas — An attorney who relied on artificial intelligence as the sole means to confirm citations and quotations in a brief opposing summary judgment in a wrongful termination case must pay $2,000 and attend legal training, a federal judge in Texas said in imposing sanctions including allowing the defendant to file a reply to the amended response, which it did Dec. 2.

  • December 02, 2024

    Class Certification Denied For Lack Of Adequacy In Twitter Arbitration Fee Fight

    OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal judge in California denied a motion for class certification filed by former Twitter Inc. employees who have sought to compel arbitration against Twitter and X Corp. but have been unable to proceed in part due to Twitter and X’s refusal to pay the required fees, opining that the workers have not show they can adequately represent the proposed class.

  • November 22, 2024

    Federal Judge: Illinois Act Placing Limits On BIPA Recovery Applies Retroactively

    CHICAGO — An August amendment to Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) that placed limits on an individual’s recovery for certain data release violations applies retroactively, a federal judge in Illinois ruled, dismissing for lack of subject matter jurisdiction an employee’s complaint against his employer.

  • November 22, 2024

    Issues Of Accommodation, Hardship In Vaccine Religious Refusal Case Left To Jury

    DETROIT — A Michigan federal court denied the partial summary judgment motion of a former employee of a resort and denied in part and granted in part the resort’s motion for summary judgment in the employee’s lawsuit claiming religious discrimination by failing to accommodate his objection to being vaccinated for COVID-19 and subjecting him to disparate treatment.

  • November 22, 2024

    Insurer Contests $12M Jury Verdict Won By Employee Fired For Refusing COVID Vaccine

    DETROIT — After a Michigan federal jury awarded the former employee of a medical insurer nearly $3 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages after finding the insurer liable for discrimination for failing to accommodate her religious objection to receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, the insurer filed motions for judgment as a matter of law, new trial and remittitur.

  • November 20, 2024

    Trump Corp. Sues Employment Practices Liability Insurer For Breach Of Contract

    NEW YORK — The Trump Corp. sued it employment practices liability insurer in a New York federal court for breach of contract and seeks a declaration that the insurer has a duty to defend and indemnify it against a terminated employee’s lawsuit alleging unpaid overtime, age discrimination and breach of contract.