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Mealey's Employment

  • January 23, 2020

    IHOP Franchisee Will Pay $70,000 To End EEOC Sex Harassment Suit

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Plantation, Fla., IHOP franchisee will pay $70,000 and provide equitable relief to end a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the EEOC announced Jan. 23 (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, et al. v. Swami Pancake, LLC, No. 19-60714, S.D. Fla.).

  • January 23, 2020

    2 California Agencies Object To Riot Games’ Bias Class Settlement

    LOS ANGELES — California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) and Division of Labor Standards and Enforcement (DLSE) filed separate objections on Jan. 8 and 9, respectively, to a proposed settlement between Riot Games Inc. and a class of female employees pending in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, calling the $10 million amount well below a fair settlement and separate, individual settlement agreements negotiated by the named plaintiffs “potentially mislead[ing]” (Melanie McCracken, et al. v. Riot Games, Inc., et al., No. 18STCV03957, Calif. Super., Los Angeles Co.).

  • January 23, 2020

    Individual Issues Caused Class Decertification In Eddie Bauer Inspection Suit

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal judge in California on Jan. 10 decertified a class of Eddie Bauer LLC employees in California in a lawsuit seeking compensation for time spent undergoing security inspections, finding that based on the current record before the court, a jury would have to make decisions related to each employee’s experience with exit inspections as there was no uniform policy (Stephanie Heredia v. Eddie Bauer LLC, No. 16-6236, N.D. Calif., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4627).

  • January 22, 2020

    M&T Bank Will Pay $100,000 For Failing To Accommodate Pregnancy-Related Disability

    BALTIMORE — A Maryland federal judge on Jan. 21 signed off on a consent decree under which Manufacturers and Traders Trust Co., doing business as M&T Bank, will pay $100,000 to end a lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging failure to provide reasonable accommodation to an employee for a pregnancy-related disability (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company, No. 16-3180, D. Md.).

  • January 21, 2020

    Aramark Agrees To Settle Managers’ Unpaid Bonuses Class Suit For $21M

    PHILADELPHIA — Managers formerly employed by Aramark Corp. filed an unopposed motion in a federal court in Pennsylvania on Jan. 15, seeking preliminary approval of a $21 million class settlement that would end their complaints alleging that they were not paid all owed bonuses (Henry J. Lacher, et al. v. Aramark Corporation, No. 19-687, Michael Mercer, et al. v. Aramark Corporation, No. 19-2762, E.D. Pa.).

  • January 21, 2020

    U.S. High Court Requests Supplemental Briefs In Federal Sector Age Bias Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 17 directed parties in an age bias case concerning the Age Discrimination in Employment Act’s (ADEA) federal sector provision to file supplemental letter briefs concerning the available administrative or judicial relief available beyond the ADEA (Noris Babb v. Robert Wilkie, No. 18-882, U.S. Sup.).

  • January 17, 2020

    U.S. High Court Requests Supplemental Briefs In Federal Sector Age Bias Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 17 directed parties in an age bias case concerning the Age Discrimination in Employment Act’s (ADEA) federal sector provision to file supplemental letter briefs concerning the available administrative or judicial relief available beyond the ADEA (Noris Babb v. Robert Wilkie, No. 18-882, U.S. Sup.).

  • January 17, 2020

    Judge Refuses To Dismiss Wage Law Claims Against Franchisee Of Denny’s

    TOLEDO, Ohio — An Ohio federal judge on Jan. 14 denied a Denny’s restaurant franchisee’s motion to dismiss state and federal wage law claims after finding that former servers showed that they performed nontipped labor unrelated to their tipped occupation and that the servers performed the nontipped labor more than “part of the time” or “occasionally” (Christy D. O’Neal, et al. v. Denn-Ohio, LLC, No. 19-280, N.D. Ohio, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5721).

  • January 17, 2020

    Hispanic Chipotle Workers Alleging Race Bias Denied Class Certification

    SAN FRANCISCO — Restaurant workers alleging that they were forced to speak only English at work and were denied promotions for allegedly not meeting subjective English proficiency requirements failed to show that they satisfied the commonality or typicality requirements of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(a), a federal judge in California ruled Jan. 15, denying a motion for class certification (Adriana Guzman, et al. v. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., et al., No. 17-2606, N.D. Calif., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 7019).

  • January 16, 2020

    Magistrate Refuses To Dismiss UCL, All Claims In Class Action Employment Dispute

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal magistrate judge in California on Jan. 15 denied an oil refinery’s motion to dismiss a wage-and-hour violations class action brought by current and former employees, finding that because the California Labor Code claims survive dismissal, the unfair competition law (UCL) claim based on the oil refinery’s purported “unlawful” conduct also survives (Marco Dimercurio, et al v. Equilon Enterprises LLC, No. 19-04029, N.D. Calif., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7006).

  • January 16, 2020

    Split 5th Circuit Affirms Federal Court’s Jurisdiction Over Arbitration Award

    NEW ORLEANS — A divided Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Jan. 14 affirmed a district court’s confirmation of an arbitration award for an employee and joined three other circuits in ruling that the look-through approach for a petition under Section 4 of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) as established in Vaden v. Discover Bank also applies to motions under three other sections of the FAA (Nicole J. Quezada v. Bechtel OG & C Construction Services, Incorporated, No. 19-20042, 5th Cir., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 1192).

  • January 16, 2020

    D.C. Circuit Remands Case To NLRB To Consider Employer’s Obligations

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Dec. 31 granted an employer’s petition for review in a matter over an employee’s firing after writing a phrase on an overtime sign-up sheet and remanded the case for the National Labor Relations Board to consider in the first instance whether when ruling against the employer, it ignored the employer’s obligation to provide a harassment-free workplace (Constellium Rolled Products Ravenswood, LLC v. National Labor Relations Board, No. 18-1300, D.C. Cir., 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 38751).

  • January 16, 2020

    Split Indiana High Court: Employment Contracts’ Damages Clauses Unenforceable

    INDIANAPOLIS — Liquidated damages provisions in three employees’ contracts requiring payments that could potentially total in the millions if they left and recruited customers and other workers are unenforceable as they “are facially unreasonable” and have not been shown to correlate to actual losses, a split Indiana Supreme Court ruled Dec. 18 (American Consulting, Inc. v. Hannum Wagle & Cline Engineering, Inc., et al., No. 18S-PL-00437, Ind. Sup., 2019 Ind. LEXIS 935).

  • January 16, 2020

    California County Seeks High Court Review In Home Care Workers’ Wage Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Los Angeles County in a Jan. 6 petition for a writ of certiorari asks the U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether it is entitled to sovereign immunity in a wage complaint by in-home care workers and whether the U.S. Department of Labor’s nonenforcement policy bars private rights of action during the agency’s nonenforcement period (County of Los Angeles v. Trina Ray, et al., No. 19-856, U.S. Sup.).

  • January 15, 2020

    U.S. Supreme Court Hears Arguments On Federal Sector Age Bias

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal sector provision of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) bars “discrimination not only in the ultimate outcome of a personnel decision but also in the process of making that decision,” an attorney representing a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) pharmacist argued on Jan. 15 before the U.S. Supreme Court (Noris Babb v. Robert Wilkie, No. 18-882, U.S. Sup.).

  • January 15, 2020

    EEOC: No High Court Review Of Authority To Investigate Is Necessary

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court does not need to review a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling enforcing a subpoena by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission seeking additional information from an employer as part of a discrimination investigation after a right-to-sue letter was issued and the employee that made the original charge already filed suit because the EEOC’s investigative authority is not limited in that way, the EEOC argues in a Jan. 3 opposition brief (VF Jeanswear, LP v. U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, No. 19-446, U.S. Sup.).

  • January 15, 2020

    2nd Circuit Finds Insurance Appeals Nurse Is Exempt From Overtime

    NEW YORK — A registered nurse who works for an insurance company reviewing denials of claims for medical insurance coverage is a professional employee exempt from the overtime pay requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Jan. 14 (Sharon Isett, et al. v. Aetna Life Insurance Company, et al., No. 18-3271, 2nd Cir., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 1190).

  • January 15, 2020

    5th Circuit:  Manager Fired For Sleeping At Work Can’t Show Disability Bias

    NEW ORLEANS — A security company manager who was fired after he was found sleeping on the job failed to show that his diabetes, for which he had received other accommodations, was the direct cause or that a reasonable accommodation existed, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Jan. 14 (George Charles Clark v. Champion National Security, Incorporated, No. 18-11613, 5th Cir., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 1191).

  • January 15, 2020

    Judge Conditionally Certifies Collective Action Against Domino’s Pizza Franchisee

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal judge in Ohio on Jan. 13 conditionally certified a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) collective action concerning delivery drivers’ wages and authorized notice to all delivery drivers employed at five Domino’s pizza franchises in the state (Scott Honaker v. Wright Bros. Pizza, Inc., et al., No. 18-1528, S.D. Ohio, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5181).

  • January 14, 2020

    5th Circuit Affirms Ruling For County In Wage Suit, Notes Not All Issues Resolved

    NEW ORLEANS — A district court correctly concluded that Texas county detectives were paid a salary when it granted a motion for judgment as a matter of law following a jury’s opposite determination in a verdict for the detectives; however, the detectives’ overtime claims were not dead and could have proceeded in a new trial had the detectives not abandoned their motion for one, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Jan. 10 (Jose Escribano, et al. v. Travis County, Texas, No. 19-50236, 5th Cir., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 853).