Mealey's Employment

  • March 18, 2024

    Tesla, Former Employee Reach Settlement After Race Bias Retrial

    SAN FRANCISCO — Tesla Inc. and a former worker who was awarded nearly $3.2 million by a jury after a retrial in a racial discrimination case filed March 15 in a federal court in California a joint stipulation for dismissal, saying they executed an undisclosed final, binding settlement.

  • March 18, 2024

    Calif. Federal Judge Rejects Claims That State Worker Status Bill Is Preempted

    SAN DIEGO — A California bill that codified the “ABC test” for classifying worker status isn’t preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (FAAAA or F4A) or prohibited by the U.S. Constitution’s dormant commerce clause or the equal protection clause of the U.S. and California constitutions, a federal judge in that state ruled March 15, opining that fixing any deficiencies in the bill is “the kind of work better left to the soap box and the ballot box than to the jury box.”

  • March 18, 2024

    6th Circuit Affirms Denial Of Intervention In Now Settled Vaccine Mandate Dispute

    CINCINNATI — A trial court did not abuse its discretion when it denied a motion to intervene filed by one of more than 4,000 potential class members in a since settled case by employees over a health care provider’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy.

  • March 15, 2024

    AI Hiring Program Maker Says It Makes Software, Isn’t An Employment Agency

    SAN FRANCISCO — A man’s amended complaint hides an “old theory in artful vagary” and cannot show that Workday Inc., rather than an end user, directs an artificial intelligence applicant review program or that providing the application transforms Workday into an employment agency, the company tells a federal judge in California in seeking dismissal of an employment discrimination case.

  • March 15, 2024

    High Court: State Action On Social Media Requires Exercise Of Actual Authority

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Vacating and remanding two lawsuits in which public officials were accused of violating the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by blocking naysayers on social media, the U.S. Supreme Court on March 15 established a two-step test for determining whether such activity by an official constitutes state action, making it susceptible to legal action under U.S. Code Title 42 Section 1983, or is merely their own private, protected speech.

  • March 15, 2024

    Former Volvo Worker Seeks Rehearing After 7th Circuit USERRA Ruling

    CHICAGO — A former Volvo Group North America LLC employee filed a motion in the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 14 seeking to correct a quote in her petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc filed two days earlier; in the petition, the former employee argues that the Seventh Circuit erred when it affirmed a trial court’s refusal to alter or amend its judgment after the second trial in the worker’s Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) case ended in a verdict for Volvo.

  • March 14, 2024

    5th Circuit Affirms Ruling Against Beneficiary In Business Travel Accident Row

    NEW ORLEANS — Affirming summary judgment in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act dispute involving business travel accident (BTA) insurance, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel issued an unpublished opinion ruling that the trial court “correctly reviewed the denial [of benefits] for abuse of discretion.”

  • March 13, 2024

    EEOC, Cable Company Settle Temporary Schedule Suit After Claims Reinstated

    MILWAUKEE — A cable company accused by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of discriminating against an employee with a disability by denying him an extension of his modified work schedule will pay $60,000 to settle the lawsuit, according to a consent decree signed by a federal judge in Wisconsin on March 12.

  • March 13, 2024

    Dried Fruit Company Agrees To $2M Settlement In EEOC Sex Harassment Case

    FRESNO, Calif. — A dried fruit supplier will pay $2 million to end a lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accusing the employer of subjecting female workers in California to a sexually hostile work environment, according to a consent decree signed by a federal judge in California on March 12.

  • March 11, 2024

    NLRB’s New Joint Employer Rule Vacated By Federal Judge In Texas

    TYLER, Texas — A federal judge in Texas on March 8 vacated the National Labor Relations Board’s new final rule on the standard for determining joint employer status, opining that enforcing it against a variety of employer groups and “their members would be contrary to law as to the Rule’s addition of a new 29 C.F.R. § 103.40 and arbitrary and capricious as to the Rule’s removal of the existing 29 C.F.R. § 103.40 (2020).”

  • March 07, 2024

    Christian Employment Group, Members Have Standing In ACA Challenge, Judge Says

    BISMARCK, N.D. — Both the individual members of a Christian employers’ group and the association itself have standing in the face of imminent and concrete injury from a Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) rule including gender identity under the definitions of discrimination, a federal judge in North Dakota said in granting the plaintiffs summary judgment on Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) claims.

  • March 07, 2024

    Former Twitter Officers File ERISA Suit For Severance Against Musk, Others

    OAKLAND, Calif. — Alleging that Elon Musk “fired them without reason, then made up fake cause and appointed employees of his various companies to uphold his decision,” four former Twitter Inc. officers or executives sued Musk and other defendants in California federal court, asserting Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims for severance benefits, equitable relief and statutory penalties.

  • March 07, 2024

    3rd Circuit: Union’s Multiple-Year Absence, Not Employer, Caused Loss Of Support

    PHILADELPHIA — A union’s loss of support among employees at a New Jersey nonprofit was caused by its “own absence over the span of multiple years,” a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, granting an employer’s petition for review and denying the National Labor Relations Board’s cross-application for enforcement, both filed after the NLRB found that communications by the employer regarding the union were coercive and that a poll regarding union support was not done in good faith.

  • March 07, 2024

    2 Amicus Briefs Filed In High Court Arbitration Stay Dispute Support Neither Side

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A national, voluntary bar association and the world’s largest business federation separately filed amicus curiae briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting neither side in an appeal over Section 3 of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and whether it requires a district court to stay litigation involving an arbitrable claim until arbitration is over; the briefs were filed one week after the petitioners, delivery drivers, submitted their brief arguing that a stay is required.

  • February 20, 2024

    COMMENTARY: NLRB’s Recognition Of Dartmouth College Men’s Basketball Team As Employees Could Change Collegiate Sports Forever

    By James A. Holt and Cori Smith

  • March 06, 2024

    11th Circuit Upholds Halt Of Florida Law Barring Diversity, Inclusion Training

    ATLANTA — A Florida law that bans certain mandatory workplace trainings promoting various concepts on race and gender discrimination “targets speech based on its content” and “penalizes certain viewpoints—the greatest First Amendment sin,” an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a trial court’s order preliminarily enjoining the operation of the law’s mandatory-meeting provision.

  • March 06, 2024

    Split 5th Circuit Denies Mandamus Petition In SpaceX, NLRB Case

    NEW ORLEANS — A divided Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 5 denied a petition for a writ of mandamus filed by Space Exploration Technologies Corp. after its complaint accusing the National Labor Relations Board of unlawfully subjecting it to an administrative proceeding was transferred from a federal court in Texas to one in California; an order withholding issuance of a mandate was issued the same day.

  • March 06, 2024

    21 States, Others Support Starbucks’ NLRB Injunctive Relief Standard Arguments

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Tennessee and 20 other states filed one of seven amicus curiae briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting Starbucks Corp. in its argument that district courts must use the traditional four-factor test rather than the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ two-part test when evaluating requests by the National Labor Relations Board for an injunction under Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) while an NLRB adjudication is pending.

  • March 06, 2024

    U.S. High Court Won’t Hear Appeal In Dispute Over Port’s Use Of Non-Union Workers

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by South Carolina and the South Carolina State Ports Authority after a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that a union’s lawsuit against the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) and two carrier members after union and non-union workers were used at a new port in a way similar to those used in three other nearby ports did not violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

  • March 05, 2024

    Class, Hospitals Ask 6th Circuit To Uphold Vaccine Mandate Settlement

    CINCINNATI — A class of hospital employees and their employer who reached a $130,000 nationwide settlement in a case over the employer’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy filed separate appellee briefs in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking to uphold the settlement approval being challenged on appeal by objectors.

  • March 05, 2024

    Former Associate Appeals Judgment After Verdict For Firm In Retaliation Case

    NEW YORK — A former Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP associate filed a notice of appeal after a federal court in New York entered judgment and dismissed his retaliation case after a jury verdict was returned for the firm and the firm’s management.

  • March 05, 2024

    Franchisees Seek Final Approval Of $30M Classification Settlement With Jan-Pro

    SAN FRANCISCO — California cleaning franchisees who sued Jan-Pro Franchising International Inc. alleging misclassification as independent contractors filed a motion in a federal court in California seeking final approval of a class settlement under which the franchisor will pay $30 million and make changes to its business practices.

  • March 05, 2024

    7th Circuit Upholds USERRA Ruling For Volvo After 2nd Trial

    CHICAGO — A trial court did not abuse its discretion when it found in a former Volvo Group North America LLC employee’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) case that the initial jury verdict on the ADA claim was “grossly excessive and irrational” and ordered a new trial on the USERRA claim alone after determining that the worker failed to show that she was a qualified individual under the ADA as the whole verdict was “tainted,” the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled, affirming the trial court’s refusal to alter or amend its judgment after the second trial ended in a verdict for Volvo.

  • March 04, 2024

    Ferry Workers Ask 1st Circuit To Reverse Injunction Denial In Vaccine Case

    BOSTON — A trial court erred its standard of review selection and abused its discretion when it denied for a second time a request for preliminary injunction by employees of a Massachusetts ferry operations authority who sued after their requests for religious exemptions from a COVID-19 vaccine mandate were denied, the workers argue in their appellant brief filed in the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • March 04, 2024

    U.S. High Court Won’t Hear Age Bias, Ministerial Exception Appeals In Same Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 4 denied petitions for writ of certiorari filed by  the estate of a former Liberty University Inc. professor and the university after the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a summary judgment ruling for the school in the professor’s age bias lawsuit.