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Mealey's Employment

  • September 27, 2023

    Pa. Federal Judge Dismisses FCA Retaliation Claims By Fired Sleep Study Workers

    PHILADELPHIA — While a Pennsylvania federal judge said it was “very unfortunate” that two longtime employees of Abington Memorial Hospital were terminated for “minor infractions” or possible retaliation for reporting that the hospital’s sleep center was using recalled continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) sleep apnea devices and respirators on its patients, the complaint failed to plead that the use could have defrauded the federal government, dooming their False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation claim.

  • September 27, 2023

    NLRB Seeks Consolidation Of Appeals After Union Rep Proceedings Standard Issued

    SAN FRANCISCO — The National Labor Relations Board filed an unopposed motion on Sept. 26 in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking consolidation of appeals filed after a divided NLRB in August issued a decision announcing a new framework for determining when employers must bargain with unions without a representation election.

  • September 26, 2023

    Hearing Scheduled After Settlement Notice Filed In Franchisor Classification Case

    SAN FRANCISCO — A hearing was scheduled for Sept. 27 in a cleaning service franchisee classification class dispute after the franchisor filed a notice that the parties reached a settlement agreement that will provide up to $30 million; the federal judge in California stated in the order that the status of the settlement and whether to vacate the October trial date will be considered at the hearing.

  • September 22, 2023

    Final Approval Of $130,000 Class Settlement Sought In Vaccine Mandate Dispute

    GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Current and former employees of Ascension Michigan filed a motion on Sept. 21 in a federal court in Michigan seeking final approval of a $130,000 settlement in a class lawsuit over the health care provider’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy.

  • September 22, 2023

    $6M Settlement Reached In Race Case Against Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Washington, D.C., granted preliminary approval of a $6 million class settlement in a race bias, harassment and retaliation case against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

  • September 21, 2023

    Taco Bell Worker Settles Biometric Data Case After Arbitration Order

    EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — A Taco Bell employee who alleged in a putative class complaint that workers’ biometric data is collected, used and stored in violation of state law dismissed the case with prejudice on Sept. 20 in a federal court in Illinois after filing a notice of settlement.

  • September 21, 2023

    Hispanic Workers’ Claims Of Bias Against Wells Fargo Stayed In Federal Court

    SAN ANTONIO — A federal judge in Texas compelled arbitration individually staying claims for 16 of 17 plaintiffs who filed an amended class action against Wells Fargo Bank N.A. alleging that the bank forces its employees to offer predatory mortgage lending options to Spanish-speaking customers and excludes members of a bilingual team from opportunities within the company.

  • September 20, 2023

    EEOC Sues United Healthcare For Denying Religious Exemption From Vaccine Mandate

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — United Healthcare Services Inc. violated a work-from-home employee’s rights when it denied her request for exemption from its COVID-19 vaccine mandate and fired her, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleges in a complaint filed Sept. 19 in a federal court in Ohio.

  • September 20, 2023

    Federal Judge Seeks Amended Class Settlement Motion In Papa John’s No-Poach Case

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A federal judge in Kentucky denied preliminary approval of a $5 million class settlement proposed in a case accusing a pizza chain franchisor of violating the Sherman Act by coordinating no-poach agreements between its franchisees, finding that insufficient information was supplied regarding adequacy, typicality and predominance.

  • September 18, 2023

    Government Urges High Court To Uphold ‘Bedrock Principle’ Of Chevron Deference

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. secretary of Commerce, two National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) officials and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (collectively, the government) urge the U.S. Supreme Court in a Sept. 15 brief to not overrule the doctrine of Chevron deference in a challenge to fishery regulations that were upheld by the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, writing that doing so could “cause disruption” to complex federal regulatory schemes.

  • September 18, 2023

    Maine Health Centers Argue Against High Court Review Of COVID-19 Vaccine Challenge

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Maine health centers accused by employees of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when they fired workers who refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19 filed a respondent brief in the U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 15, arguing that high court review is not necessary as the accommodations being sought by the workers is not reasonable, even under the standard clarified in Groff v. DeJoy.

  • September 14, 2023

    Employer Asks U.S. Supreme Court To Decide Evidence Necessary For FLSA Exemption

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court justices should decide whether the evidence necessary for an exemption to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) “is a mere preponderance of the evidence” or if it is “clear and convincing evidence,” a direct store delivery vendor and its CEO argue in a petition for a writ of certiorari challenging a ruling by the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • September 14, 2023

    11th Circuit Upholds Ruling Against Former Exec In ERISA Severance Row

    ATLANTA — In an unpublished per curiam opinion explaining only that “we find no reversible error in the district court’s judgment,” an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel upheld summary judgment against a former CSX Transportation Inc. executive in a dispute concerning what is known as a “top hat” severance plan.

  • September 13, 2023

    Washington Detention Center Operator Responds To Amici In Employment Class Dispute

    OLYMPIA, Wash. — The owner and operator of a Tacoma, Wash., detention center accused by immigration detainees of failing to pay them sufficient wages for participation in a work program filed an answer in the Washington Supreme Court, arguing against amicus briefs supporting arguments by the detainees and addressing questions certified by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a wage-and-hour class dispute.

  • September 13, 2023

    Colo. High Court: Allegedly Defamatory Statements About Class Case Were Protected

    DENVER — Statements that were allegedly defamatory made by attorneys during a press conference while announcing that they were filing a wage-and-hour class complaint on behalf beauty bar employees “were protected by the litigation privilege,” the Colorado Supreme Court ruled, rejecting an appellate panel’s conclusion that there is an exception to that privilege where a complaint states that the class is “easily ascertainable” and additionally finding that the statements made served as protected notification of the complaint to the public and potential class members.

  • September 13, 2023

    Salon Owners Arrested After Failing To Comply With Orders In Pandemic Dispute

    CHICAGO — The owners of a salon with two locations in Wisconsin were arrested by U.S. marshals for refusing to comply with orders by the National Labor Relations Board and the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals stemming from actions they were found to have taken against an employee who raised concerns about the salon’s safety measures at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the NLRB announced Sept. 13.

  • September 13, 2023

    Mass. Panel Vacates Summary Judgment For Employer In ‘Sunday Pay’ Class Case

    BOSTON — Workers who filed a putative class complaint against the owners of a chain of day spas where they worked seeking premium pay for the hours they worked on Sundays pursuant to a Massachusetts law in effect until the beginning of 2023 may proceed with their claims as the spa’s retail sales make it a “store” and “shop” under the statute, the Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled, vacating a trial court’s summary judgment ruling for the spa owners.

  • September 12, 2023

    VA Secretary Tells High Court Veterans’ Education Benefits Are Properly Capped

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A veteran challenging a ruling by the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that education benefits under two GI bills are capped can’t overcome the plain language in 38 U.S. Code Section 3327(d), which does not distinguish between veterans with a single period of service and those with separate periods of service, the secretary of Veterans Affairs argues in a respondent brief filed Sept. 11 in the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • September 11, 2023

    NFL Coaches Cross-Appeal Arbitration Rulings In Race Bias Class Case

    NEW YORK — National Football League (NFL) coaches who have filed a putative class complaint accusing the NFL and football teams of racial discrimination filed a notice of cross-appeal in a federal court in New York following two rulings, one in March and one in July, partially compelling arbitration of the claims.

  • September 11, 2023

    Judge Approves Consent Decree In Hiring Algorithm Age Discrimination Case

    BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A federal judge in New York on Sept. 8 approved a consent decree resolving Equal Employment Opportunity Commission allegations that a trio of English-language tutoring companies excluded more than 200 applicants on age-related grounds by training their hiring algorithm to identify and reject older applicants.

  • September 11, 2023

    Employee To High Court: SOX Whistleblower Provision Doesn’t Require Retaliation

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s (SOX) whistleblower protection provision does not require an employee suing under it to show that his or her “employer acted with ‘retaliatory intent,’” a strategist argues in his reply brief filed in the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • September 07, 2023

    Amici File Briefs In Washington Supreme Court: Immigration Detainees Are Employees

    OLYMPIA, Wash. — Federal immigration detainees who participate in a work program and the for-profit operator of the detention center where they are housed have an employer-employee relationship, the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington Foundation (ACLU) argues in one of the recent amicus briefs filed in the Washington Supreme Court addressing questions certified by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a wage-and-hour class dispute.

  • September 07, 2023

    U.S., Other Amici Support Sergeant’s Job Transfer Bias Arguments In High Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The plain text of Section 703(a)(1) of the Civil Rights Act, Supreme Court precedent and the purpose of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 all support a finding that all biased job transfers are prohibited even if they don’t include a demotion or other “significant disadvantage,” the United States argues in its amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting a St. Louis police sergeant who is before the high court arguing that her forced job transfer was based on her gender and thus discriminatory.

  • September 07, 2023

    2nd Circuit Upholds $17.78M Judgment For EMTs, Paramedics In Wage Case

    NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a trial court’s $17.78 million judgment for New York City emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics who alleged that they were forced to perform work before and after shifts often without pay, rejecting the city’s arguments that the jury’s liability verdict and willfulness finding could not stand.

  • September 07, 2023

    Federal Judge: Advocacy Group Lacks Standing To Sue Over Tipped Pay

    SAN FRANCISCO — An advocacy organization whose focus is on eliminating subminimum cash wages lacks standing to sue Darden Restaurants Inc. over its pay, a federal judge in California ruled, adding that the group “may amend its complaint to sufficiently allege a nexus between the injury to Darden employees and [its] organizational injury.”