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Mealey's Employment

  • August 26, 2025

    Divided 6th Circuit Remands Parts Of Fired Mail Clerk’s FMLA Case To Trial Court

    CINCINNATI — A divided Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that a Michigan federal judge incorrectly opined that a Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) “medical certification can create a hard cap on unforeseeable intermittent FMLA leave” in reversing and remanding parts of a discrimination and retaliation suit a fired mail clerk filed against the United States Postal Service (USPS) over unexcused absences he took to treat his sickle cell anemia.

  • August 26, 2025

    Illinois Panel Reverses Class Certification In Pepperidge Farm BIPA Case

    CHICAGO — A trial court must “make explicit findings as to whether any possible conflict of interest” exists as to class counsel in an Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) case brought against Pepperidge Farm Inc. by an employee, an Illinois appellate panel ruled Aug. 25, reversing class certification after the sole named plaintiff’s daughter’s firm was permitted to remain as class counsel.

  • August 26, 2025

    Labor Secretary Argues Against High Court Review Of DOL Interaction, Travel Pay

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court should not grant a home health agency’s petition seeking review of two questions concerning the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Portal-to-Portal Act (PPA) and a finding of a willful violation, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) secretary writes in an Aug. 25 opposition brief, arguing that the case is “an unsuitable vehicle to consider” the willful violation question and there is no circuit split when it comes to the ruling on pay for time spent traveling between worksites.

  • August 22, 2025

    Panel: Ga. Trial Court Erred Allowing FELA Case To Proceed Without Expert Testimony

    ATLANTA — A Georgia trial court erred in refusing to grant summary judgment to Norfolk Southern Railway Co. because its employee, who claims that strenuous work on the railroad caused his injuries, lacked expert testimony to prove medical causation, the state appeals court held in reversing.

  • August 22, 2025

    Vaccine Refuser Who Court Found Failed To Make Out Discrimination Claim Appeals

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After a North Carolina federal judge granted summary judgment to an employer in a former employee’s lawsuit stemming from her termination for declining to become vaccinated for COVID-19, having found that the employee failed to establish a prima facie case of failure to accommodate her religious beliefs or of racial discrimination, the employee on Aug. 21 filed a notice of appeal to the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • August 22, 2025

    Hospital Says Vaccine Mandate Not State Act, Did Not Violate Constitutional Rights

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Arguing that it is not a state actor and that former employees’ constitutional rights were not violated, a university health system moved to dismiss the second amended complaint of former employees alleging violations of their constitutional rights to “bodily autonomy, medical privacy and equal protection” caused by the health system’s mandatory COVID-19 policy and seeking damages under Section 1983 of Title 42 of the U.S. Code.

  • August 21, 2025

    Federal Judge Denies Injunction Pending Appeal In Fired Register Of Copyrights’ Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Aug. 20 denied a motion for an injunction pending appeal filed by the register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office who sued after she was purportedly fired in May by President Donald J. Trump and was denied a preliminary injunction in her case; a similar motion remains pending before the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • August 21, 2025

    Deal Reported In Former Twitter Workers’ $500M Lawsuit For Severance

    SAN FRANCISCO — In a joint Aug. 20 filing citing an unspecified “imminent class-wide settlement agreement,” the parties in an appeal where former Twitter Inc. employees received support from amicus curiae the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) in seeking revival of their putative class action for more than $500 million in severance benefits asked the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to postpone oral argument that is scheduled for Sept. 17.

  • August 21, 2025

    Judge: Pension Trust Must Pay Class Nearly $25M In Early Retirement Row

    KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Wrapping up a 6-year-old Employee Retirement Income Security Act case filed by labor union members whose early retirement benefits were stopped or denied because of non-boilermaker work, a Kansas federal judge ordered defendants to pay class members a total of $24,851,056 and to refrain from “acting in a manner that is contrary to” an April 30 summary judgment order.

  • August 20, 2025

    Modified Class Certified In USAID Workers’ Shutdown Suit

    GREENBELT, Md. — A federal judge in Maryland certified a modified class of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) workers who allege that actions by Elon Musk and others in the federal government to shut down the agency violate the U.S. Constitution.

  • August 20, 2025

    5th Circuit Reverses ‘Quorum Clause’ Ruling That Enjoined Pregnant Workers Act

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority found that a constitutional “quorum clause” does not require U.S. Congress members to be physically present to make up a voting quorum, reversing and vacating a Texas federal judge’s ruling that the clause required physical presence and trumped a COVID-19-era rule that allowed voting by proxy during the passage of federal legislation that established the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA).

  • August 20, 2025

    State Farm Says 6th Circuit Cat’s Paw Ruling Warrants Review In Fired Worker Case

    CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority’s finding that the existence of proximate cause in a cat’s paw case supports its ruling 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 is grounds for panel rehearing or en banc review, State Farms claims in a petition.

  • August 20, 2025

    Split D.C. Circuit: CFPB Firings Claims Must Go Through CSRA Review Scheme

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated a trial court’s preliminary injunction in a case over the termination of more than 1,400 workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) after the majority ruled that the claims related to loss of employment “must proceed through the specialized-review scheme established in the Civil Service Reform Act.”

  • August 20, 2025

    5th Circuit Denies Rehearing After Affirming Dismissal Of Suit Over NLRB Memo

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals treated a petition for rehearing en banc filed by staffing companies as a petition for panel rehearing and denied it, leaving in place a panel majority ruling that a federal court in Texas properly dismissed for lack of standing the companies’ complaint alleging that a memorandum by the then-National Labor Relations Board general counsel enforced a new interpretation of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which they claimed “prohibits employers from speaking to employees about unionization.”

  • August 20, 2025

    Split 5th Circuit Upholds Preliminary Injunctions Halting NLRB ULP Proceedings

    NEW ORLEANS — Three trial courts properly issued preliminary injunctions in three cases challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board that halted unfair labor practice (ULP) complaints against three employers, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority ruled Aug. 19, opining that the employers “made their case” regarding the dual for-cause removal protections for administrative law judges (ALJs) and NLRB members and “[w]hen an agency’s structure violates the separation of powers, the harm is immediate—and the remedy must be, too.”

  • August 20, 2025

    5th Circuit Remands Louisiana Dock Operator’s Claims Over COVID-19 Vaccine Firing

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that a Louisiana dock operator who was fired for failing to get a COVID-19 vaccine after denial of a religious exemption request presented “sufficient evidence” to pursue claims of religious discrimination and disparate treatment, reversing and remanding the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to his former employer.

  • August 20, 2025

    10th Circuit Affirms $62,430 Fee Award, Other Rulings Against Pro Se Appellant

    DENVER — Issuing an unpublished order on two appeals that sprang from the same case, the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal and summary judgment rulings against a man who filed a pro se suit over the fallout from an externship he took part in after suffering a stroke as a law student; the panel also upheld an order requiring the man to pay one defendant $62,430 for attorney fees, which was half of what the defendant had sought.

  • August 19, 2025

    Preliminary Injunction Granted In Suit Challenging EO Limiting Right To Organize

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three unions sufficiently established irreparable harm, a federal judge in the District of Columbia said in granting their motion for a preliminary injunction in a case challenging a March presidential executive order (EO) that removed various federal agencies and agency subdivisions from the union organizing protections of the Federal Service Labor-Management Statute and Foreign Service Labor-Management Relations Statute.

  • August 19, 2025

    2nd Circuit Upholds Arbitration Denial In NFL Coach’s Race Bias Suit

    NEW YORK — Rulings denying arbitration of a National Football League (NFL) coach’s race bias claims against the Denver Broncos and NFL based on his employment agreement with the New England Patriots and denying reconsideration were proper as the coach’s agreement “provides for arbitration in name only and accordingly lacks the protection of the Federal Arbitration Act (‘FAA’),” the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled, affirming the trial court’s orders in a putative class suit by three current and former NFL coaches.

  • August 19, 2025

    Parties Seek Summary Judgment In Resort Employee’s COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal Case

    CAMDEN, N.J. — In a lawsuit alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) stemming from the refusal of a resort employee with a history of negative reactions to vaccines and other medications to become vaccinated for COVID-19 under the resort’s mandatory vaccination policy and denial of a medical exemption, the resort moved for summary judgment and the employee moved for partial summary judgment.

  • August 18, 2025

    Split 2nd Circuit Resolves Separation Agreement Row, Revives LTD Benefits Suit

    NEW YORK — Ruling 2-1 “that any release of claims against [insurer Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada] was not knowing and voluntary,” the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals revived a suit over denial of long-term disability (LTD) benefits where Sun Life had won summary judgment because of a separation agreement the claimant signed with her former employer.

  • August 18, 2025

    1978 Agreement That Limited Va. City’s Hiring Practices Abolished In Federal Court

    NORFOLK, Va. — A consent decree lodged in 1978 to resolve a civil rights lawsuit alleging discrimination against the recruitment and hiring of Black people and women in the city of Norfolk, Va.’s police and fire departments through implementation of a series of quotas was terminated by a Virginia federal judge in granting an unopposed motion filed by the United States contending that the city has complied with the order and met the employment goals.

  • August 15, 2025

    Fla. Federal Judge Rules On Claims In Transgender Teachers’ Pronoun Law Dispute

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Florida federal judge opined in an order on cross-motions for summary judgment that two transgender teachers who were prohibited by a state law from using female gendered pronouns with students were discriminated against on the basis of sex in violation and preemption of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 but did not experience a hostile work environment or discrimination pursuant to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 or the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

  • August 15, 2025

    9th Circuit Denies Rehearing After Wage Ruling For Immigration Detainee Class

    SEATTLE — A split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc filed by a for-profit company that runs the Northwest Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center (NWIPC) after the panel majority ruled that the application of the Washington Minimum Wage Act (WMWA) to voluntary work programs (VWP) for federal immigration detainees housed at NWIPC does not violate the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity, the state law is not preempted by federal law and the NWIPC operator does not have derivative sovereign immunity.

  • August 15, 2025

    Timeclock Seller Prevails On Employer’s Cross-Claims In Illinois Privacy Action

    CHICAGO — A company facing an ongoing class action involving finger-scan timeclocks that it sold has had an employer’s cross-claims against it dismissed with prejudice in an Illinois federal court, where a judge recently found that under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), “the templates at issue in this case constitute biometric information.”