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Mealey's Employment

February 12, 2024
McDonald’s Workers Say U.S. High Court Need Not Weigh In On No-Poach Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision holding that the no longer enforced no-hire agreement between a fast food franchisor and its franchisees might violate antitrust laws is “unremarkable” and “does not merit” review by the U.S. Supreme Court, McDonald’s workers argue in a Feb. 9 opposition to a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by McDonald’s USA LLC and McDonald’s Corp. (together, McDonald’s).
February 09, 2024
Federal Jury Awards EEOC More Than $1.6M In Disability Bias Case

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A federal jury in New York returned a $1,675,000 verdict on Feb. 8 for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in a case in which it accused a distribution company of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when it failed to interview and hire a deaf applicant.
February 08, 2024
U.S. High Court: Retaliatory Intent Not Required For SOX Whistleblower Provision

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A whistleblower who invokes the anti-retaliation provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) must show that his or her protected activity contributed to an undesirable personnel action but does not need to show that the “employer acted with ‘retaliatory intent,’” a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled Feb. 8.
February 07, 2024
Professors, Other Amici Support Arguments That MSPB Deadline Isn’t Jurisdictional

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred when it treated a 60-day deadline for petitioning for review of decisions by the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) as jurisdictional, law professors argue in one of five amicus briefs filed in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting arguments by a former federal employee.
February 07, 2024
Calif. High Court In Wage Case Rules PAGA Claims Can’t Be Struck For Manageability

SAN FRANCISCO — California trial court may use various tools to manage Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) claims, but striking the claims for manageability “is not among the tools trial courts possess,” the California Supreme Court ruled in a wage-and-hour case against Royalty Carpet Mills Inc.
February 07, 2024
Dismissal Of Ex-Union Member’s Case Over Expulsion, Lost Benefits Is Upheld

NEW YORK — Saying in part that evidence presented at a union trial “is sufficient under” the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel issued a summary order upholding dismissal of a case involving Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims that a retiree filed after being expelled from a union and losing pension and health benefits.
February 07, 2024
Iowa High Court: College Owed Directed Verdict In Bias, Retaliation Case

DES MOINES, Iowa — A trial court erred in not granting a college a directed verdict on an employee’s wage discrimination and retaliation claims following a more than $1 million verdict by a jury as the discrepancy in wages was shown to be justified and a denied promotion was because the employee lacked a necessary qualification, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled, reversing the trial court’s order and remanding for entry of judgment for the school.
February 07, 2024
7th Circuit Upholds Firefighter Test Despite Disparate Impact On Women

CHICAGO — A firefighter applicant who showed that a Wisconsin city fire department’s physical abilities test had a prima facie disparate impact on women failed to show violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as the test “was job-related and served the city’s legitimate needs,” a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a trial court’s ruling in the city’s favor.
February 06, 2024
Employer, Union Brief Union Rep Proceedings Standard In Consolidated Appeals

SAN FRANCISCO — An employer and union separately filed opening briefs in consolidated appeals in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals after a divided National Labor Relations Board issued a decision announcing a new framework for determining when employers must bargain with unions without a representation election.
February 06, 2024
Union Argues It’s Not Liable For Flight Attendant’s Online Speech Firing

NEW ORLEANS — A Southwest Airlines Co. flight attendant’s firing in connection with her social media messages, including some about abortion, was not influenced by the union of which she was a nonmember objector, the union argues in a reply brief filed in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in three consolidated appeals filed after the trial court awarded the flight attendant damages and ordered her reinstatement.
February 06, 2024
11th Circuit Finds Overnight Nanny Was Owed Overtime Pay Under FLSA

ATLANTA — A nanny who spent multiple overnights each week at the home where she worked but left between shifts is not exempt from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, reversing and vacating in part a trial court’s summary judgment ruling for the parents of the children for whom the nanny cared and remanding for trial the issue of whether the parents were the nanny’s employer.
February 06, 2024
Objectors To 6th Circuit: Reverse Approval Of Vaccine Mandate Settlement

CINCINNATI — Objectors to a $130,000 nationwide settlement in a class case by hospital employees who challenged their employer’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy filed an appellant brief in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals challenging the amount as inadequate and arguing that the agreement was not sufficiently scrutinized given that “the case did not involve the assertion of nationwide class claims at the time settlement was agreed to and submitted for approval.”
February 05, 2024
Judge Partially Dismisses African American’s AI Hiring Discrimination Case

SAN FRANCISCO — A man alleging that a company’s artificial intelligence discriminates in hiring practices sufficiently shows that an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charge intermingles disparate impact and intentional discrimination issues in a way that constitutes administrative exhaustion for the purposes of the latter claim, but there are insufficient allegations that the defendant acted as an employment agency for the places at which he applied or enjoys control over the employment processes, a federal judge said in partially granting a motion to dismiss.
February 02, 2024
5th Circuit Cuts $366M FedEx Retaliation Verdict To Less Than $250,000

NEW ORLEANS — A more than $366 million jury verdict against FedEx Corporate Services Inc. in a former employee’s retaliation case was reduced to $248,619.57 by a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel in a Feb. 1 opinion in which the panel found that the employee’s 42 U.S. Code Section 1981 claims were time-barred under her employment contract, that the compensatory damages for the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 claim has to be reduced based on Title VII’s $300,000 cap and the evidence and that the employee “was not entitled to punitive damages.”
February 02, 2024
Judgment Granted For Insurer In Row Over Misrepresentation Of Harassment Suit

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California federal judge granted summary judgment to an employment practices liability insurer in a declaratory judgment suit against its insured, finding that the insurer is entitled to rescind the policies because it would not have issued the policies had it known of the insured’s false affirmation in the policy application that no harassment suits were made against it in the last five years.
February 02, 2024
Judgment Entered After Verdict For Firm In Former Associate’s Retaliation Case

NEW YORK — A federal court in New York entered judgment and dismissed a retaliation case by a law firm’s former associate after a jury verdict was returned for Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and the firm’s management.
February 01, 2024
U.S. High Court Requests Response To Prevailing Wage Act Preemption Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An employee who sued his former employer in a Massachusetts court for failing to pay him according to the state’s Prevailing Wage Act was requested by the U.S. Supreme Court to respond to the employer’s petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s ruling that there was no showing that the state law was preempted by Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act of 1995 (ICCTA), as amended.
January 31, 2024
$20M Michigan Unemployment Fraud Class Settlement Approved By State Judge

LANSING, Mich. — A Michigan judge granted final approval of a $20 million class settlement in a case by unemployment recipients who accused the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency (MUIA) of wrongfully flagging them as having committed unemployment fraud, the Michigan attorney general announced Jan. 30.
January 31, 2024
$6M Settlement Approved In Race Case Against Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia issued a series of orders granting final approval of a $6 million class settlement in a race bias, harassment and retaliation case against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), as well as attorney fees and $50,000 service awards for the class representatives.
January 30, 2024
United’s $10.1M Wage Statement Pact Approved; Consent Decree Deemed Overbroad

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California granted final approval of a settlement between United Airlines Inc. and its pilots who sued alleging that their wage statements lacked certain information required under California law, but the judge reduced the requested attorney fees and service awards and denied approval of United’s unopposed consent decree, finding that it “is fatally overbroad.”
January 30, 2024
5th Circuit: Cancer Center’s Federal Funding Doesn’t Waive Immunity In Age Bias Suit

NEW ORLEANS — A cancer center’s acceptance of federal funding doesn’t waive its sovereign immunity as an arm of Texas, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Jan. 29 in a three-page per curiam opinion, reversing a trial court’s denial of the center’s dismissal motion in an age bias suit by a former employee and remanding with instructions to dismiss.
January 30, 2024
7th Circuit: School Workers Can’t Sue In Both State, Federal Court Over Vaccine

CHICAGO — School workers suing over COVID-19 vaccine and testing requirements can’t sue in both state and federal courts, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Jan. 29, affirming a trial court’s dismissal of the federal case where the workers sought damages, opining that all claims could have been included in their state court case and “Illinois does not tolerate sequential litigation against a single order, whether or not the plaintiffs made a strategic blunder.”
January 30, 2024
Sugar Factory Server Class Partly Certified In Connecticut Wage-And-Hour Suit

HARTFORD, Conn. — A Connecticut judge partially granted a motion to certify a class of current and former servers at Sugar Factory’s Foxwoods Casino location suing for various wage-and-hour claims, including the failure to pay minimum wages for nonservice work.
January 29, 2024
U.S. Supreme Court Seeks Defense Secretary Response In COVID-19 Vaccine Appeal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The secretary of Defense and other federal government officials on Jan. 26 were asked by the U.S. Supreme Court to respond to a petition by military chaplains who sued over the denial of their religious accommodation requests when it came to the COVID-19 vaccine and argue that their lawsuit remains live despite the revocation of the mandate.
January 29, 2024
U.S. Supreme Court Seeks Defense Secretary Response In COVID-19 Vaccine Appeal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The secretary of Defense and other federal government officials on Jan. 26 were asked by the U.S. Supreme Court to respond to a petition by military chaplains who sued over the denial of their religious accommodation requests when it came to the COVID-19 vaccine and argue that their lawsuit remains live despite the revocation of the mandate.