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Mealey's Employment

  • July 11, 2025

    7th Circuit Certifies COVID Screening Compensability Question To State High Court

    CHICAGO — In a lawsuit by former employees alleging that pre-shift COVID-19 screenings were compensable under the Illinois Minimum Wage Law (IMWL) and other statutes, a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel certified to the Illinois Supreme Court the question of whether the IMWL incorporates the federal Portal-to-Portal Act (PPA) amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) so as to exclude certain pre-shift activities from compensable time.

  • July 11, 2025

    Split 11th Circuit OKs Vacatur Of Arbitration Award Arising From Severance Row

    ATLANTA — In an 11-page per curiam ruling described in a 65-page dissent as doing “the unthinkable,” the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 10 affirmed vacatur of an award that resulted from pro se arbitration over severance pay and concerned an Employee Retirement Income Security Act discrimination claim that the majority concluded the appellant never raised.

  • July 11, 2025

    $4.5M WARN Act Class Settlement OK’d Pending News Group Asset Liquidation

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted final approval of a $4.5 million settlement in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act class case brought by workers against JAF Communications Inc. after they were terminated by a now-defunct news organization, The Messenger, but left pending expenses, costs, a service award to the class representative and class counsel fees until the final accounting of proceedings in which JAF’s assets are liquidated.

  • July 11, 2025

    Calif. Supreme Court: City Treasurer Can’t Invoke Whistleblower Protections

    SAN FRANCISCO — An elected city treasurer is not an employee entitled to California Labor Code whistleblower protections, the California Supreme Court ruled, affirming an appellate court’s judgment for Inglewood, Calif., and other city officials.

  • July 10, 2025

    2nd Circuit Lets ERISA Determination Stand In Deferred Compensation Row

    NEW YORK —  In a July 9 summary order, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed interlocutory cross-appeals on the grounds that it lacked jurisdiction in the dispute that involves arbitration and drew four briefs from amici curiae; the appellate court therefore let stand a determination that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act governs the compensation incentive and equity incentive plans at issue in a suit over a Morgan Stanley deferred compensation program.

  • July 10, 2025

    Panel Vacates Bank Worker’s Vaccine Exemption Denial, Affirms Discovery Sanctions

    NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel determined, in partially vacating and remanding a federal judge’s order, “that disputed issues of material fact preclude summary judgment” on one of two New York bank employees’ claims that her religious beliefs exempted her from receiving a COVID-19 vaccine after the employees were terminated for not getting vaccinated to return to work after the pandemic but agreed that the judge was correct in imposing discovery sanctions related to the employees’ lawsuit alleging religious freedom, First Amendment and Title VII violations.

  • July 09, 2025

    Removed FLRA Chair Seeks Rehearing After D.C. Circuit Stays Reinstatement

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) chair who was removed by President Donald J. Trump without explanation filed a petition for rehearing en banc after the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals stayed pending appeal a trial court ruling ordering de facto reinstatement.

  • July 09, 2025

    Employee Adds Punitive Damages Claim In COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal Case

    DENVER — After a panel of the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the judgment of a Colorado federal court dismissing an employee’s claim of religious discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act stemming from the employee’s refusal to be vaccinated for COVID-19 as mandated by a state health board emergency rule, the employee filed a third amended complaint, adding a claim for punitive damages.

  • July 09, 2025

    Reinstated CPSC Members Oppose Government’s High Court Stay Application

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three members of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) who were terminated without cause in May by President Donald J. Trump and ordered reinstated by a federal judge in Maryland filed an opposition in the U.S. Supreme Court to the government’s application to stay the summary judgment ruling in the members’ favor pending appeal.

  • July 08, 2025

    Split U.S. High Court Stays Pending Appeal Injunction In Federal Worker RIF Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided U.S. Supreme Court on July 8 stayed pending disposition of an appeal and of a petition for a writ of certiorari (if one is filed) a trial court’s preliminary injunction issued in a case challenging an executive order (EO) and memorandum implementing the EO that resulted in widespread layoffs of federal workers; the unsigned majority opinion stated that the federal “[g]overnment is likely to succeed on its argument that the Executive Order and Memorandum are lawful.”

  • July 08, 2025

    Preshift COVID-19 Screening Compensation Case Stayed Pending 7th Circuit Ruling

    CHICAGO — In a former employee’s purported class action against his employer seeking to recover unpaid wages for mandatory preshift COVID-19 screening under the Illinois Minimum Wage Law (IMWL), the Illinois Wage and Payment Collection Act (IWPCA) and quantum meruit, which alleged that the time spent screening and awaiting screening was controlled by the employer and necessary to his job and, thus, compensable, an Illinois federal judge on July 7 stayed the case pending the result of a similar case in the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • July 07, 2025

    Bill Of Costs Gripe Follows Ruling On NYU Doctor’s Gender, Pay, Retaliation Claims

    NEW YORK — A group of New York University (NYU) medical entities and employees are seeking over $10,300 in a bill of costs and say a staff physician is not entitled to more than $23,000 in a bill of costs she filed with the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals regarding a ruling that vacated and remanded a New York district court’s grant of a judgment that denied claims of retaliation against NYU and several staff members after the physician complained about gender discrimination and pay disparities before she was terminated.

  • July 07, 2025

    U.S. Marshal’s Race Bias Class Suit Stayed Pending EEOC Approval Of Settlement

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Washington, D.C., stayed a putative class complaint filed in 2024 by a former deputy U.S. marshal who has spent more than three decades litigating over alleged racial discrimination, opining that judicial economy and hardship to the government both weigh in favor of a stay pending resolution of appeals challenging a 2023 settlement between the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS).

  • July 03, 2025

    Calif. Jury Awards $9.15M To Scorned Tech Worker For Disability, Retaliation Claims

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A tech company employee who was reportedly insulted, berated and called a “cripple” at work for using a cane due to a disability and then terminated after reporting the behaviors was awarded $9.15 million in damages by a California jury that determined that he endured “severe” harassment, disability discrimination and retaliation.

  • July 03, 2025

    Federal Judge Enjoins HHS’s Announced Sub-Agency Staffing Cuts

    PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A federal judge in Rhode Island granted a motion for a preliminary injunction filed by more than a dozen states and the District of Columbia and enjoined the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and others from implementing a planned reduction-in-force (RIF) that “would substantially cut the number of employees who work for” HHS’s sub-agencies.

  • July 02, 2025

    Federal Government Appeals Summary Judgment For Perkins Coie In EO Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and other federal agencies and officials filed a notice of appeal in a federal court in the District of Columbia after Perkins Coie LLP was granted summary judgment in a lawsuit challenging a March executive order (EO) that in part accused the firm of “undermining democratic elections” and “racially discriminat[ing] against its own attorneys and staff” and prevented payment of tax dollars to the firm or federal contractors who do business with the firm.

  • July 01, 2025

    Federal Judge Enjoins Enforcement Of EO Targeting Susman Godfrey

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled that the April executive order (EO) “targeting” Susman Godfrey LLP “violates the U.S. Constitution and must be permanently enjoined.”

  • July 01, 2025

    Petition Denied In Employee Speech Case; Justice Raises Concerns About Approach

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari seeking consideration of a question concerning a high school teacher’s social media posts and whether they were preemployment speech; Justice Clarence Thomas agreed with the denial but filed a statement “to raise serious concerns about the First Circuit’s approach,” calling the appellate panel’s analysis under the framework of Pickering v. Board of Education of Township High School District 205, Will Cty. and Garcetti v. Ceballos “deeply flawed.”

  • July 01, 2025

    U.S. High Court Won’t Review Ruling On Precluding Relitigation Of SOX Issues

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a former Tesla Inc. worker who asked the justices to consider whether an arbitration award may preclude relitigation of issues underlying a Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) claim.

  • June 30, 2025

    Preliminary Injunction Denied In DOL Records DOGE Access Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Labor unions and nonprofits challenging U.S. Digital Service and U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization (together, DOGE) personnel’s right to access U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) records failed to show imminent misuse or public disclosure, a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled June 27, denying the unions and nonprofits’ request for a preliminary injunction.

  • June 30, 2025

    Battery Manufacturer Seeks High Court Review Of Measuring Integral Activities

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Pennsylvania battery manufacturer ordered to pay its workers for the true time they spend completing tasks rather than the time the employer determined was “reasonable” filed a petition for a writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to decide the proper measurement for time spent performing “‘integral and indispensable’” activities and to consider overruling Steiner v. Mitchell.

  • June 27, 2025

    In 6-3 Reversal, High Court OKs HHS Appointment Of Preventive Task Force Members

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a 6-3 reversal concerning the structure of a task force that issues preventive care recommendations, the U.S. Supreme Court on June 27 ruled that “members are inferior officers whose appointment by the Secretary of HHS [the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services] is permissible under the Appointments Clause” of the U.S. Constitution.

  • June 27, 2025

    Split U.S. High Court: Universal Injunctions ‘Likely Exceed’ Courts’ Authority

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nationwide or universal injunctions “likely exceed the equitable authority that Congress has granted to federal courts,” a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 27, partially staying nationwide injunctions issued in three cases challenging President Donald J. Trump’s Jan. 20 birthright citizenship executive order (EO),

  • June 27, 2025

    6th Circuit Remands Chili’s Manager’s ADEA Claim, Says Employer Report Inadmissible

    CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that a fired Chili’s general manager’s “own recollection” of the details of his termination, which differs from those outlined in a now-inadmissible report, and the fact that he was replaced by a much younger employee serve as evidence for an age discrimination claim in reversing and remanding a Tennessee federal court’s order that granted summary judgment to his employer.

  • June 26, 2025

    Summary Judgment For Employer Partially Vacated In Employee Speech Case

    PORTLAND, Ore. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals partially affirmed and partially vacated a trial court’s summary judgment ruling for a school district and various officials on two employees’ claims that they were discriminated against due to their religious beliefs and viewpoints and fired in retaliation for engaging in protected speech related to gender identity, parents’ rights and school district policies.