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Mealey's Employment

January 03, 2024
Amazon Worker Seeks Final Approval Of Pandemic Home-Based Expenses Settlement

SAN FRANCISCO — An Amazon worker who sued seeking reimbursement for internet expenses incurred while working from home during the coronavirus pandemic filed a motion in a federal court in California for final approval of a $950,000 class settlement to be paid by Amazon.com Services LLC.
January 03, 2024
Judge Denies PetSmart Worker’s Motion To Certify Appeal Of Arbitration Order

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Jan. 2 denied a PetSmart LLC employee’s motion to certify an interlocutory appeal of the court’s prior order compelling arbitration of her claims that the pet store violated California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other statutes by advertising pet groomer training as free in its job listings, writing that her claims are not exempt from a binding arbitration agreement because she does not seek public injunctive relief.
January 03, 2024
Domino’s Truck Drivers Urge High Court Denial Of FAA Exemption Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Domino’s Pizza LLC truck drivers (D&S drivers), found by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to be exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) in their class case alleging unreimbursed business expenses and violation of California’s unfair competition law, filed a response brief, after initially waiving their right and then being asked to file one, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to deny Domino’s petition for a writ of certiorari.
January 03, 2024
Washington Supreme Court Finds Detainees In Work Program Are Employees

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Immigration detainees participating in a work program run by the owners and operator of a Tacoma, Wash., detention center are “employees” under the Washington Minimum Wage Act (WMWA), the Washington Supreme Court ruled in an opinion addressing three questions certified by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a wage-and-hour class dispute.
January 03, 2024
UPS Agrees To Pay $150,000 To End EEOC’s Suit After Firing Diabetic Worker

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) will pay $150,000, offer reinstatement and provide other relief to end a complaint by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed in a federal court in Florida after it fired a worker with diabetes.
January 03, 2024
Workers, Walmart Reach $5.2M Class Settlement In COVID-19 Screening Suit

FRESNO, Calif. — Workers who sued Walmart Inc. in a federal court in California alleging that the retailer’s policy requiring nonexempt workers in California to undergo a COVID-19 screening each shift without pay violated state and federal wage-and-hour laws as well as California’s unfair competition law filed a motion for preliminary approval of a $5.2 million class settlement.
January 03, 2024
9th Circuit Reverses CAFA Controversy Amount Ruling In Wage Suit Against Siemens

PASADENA, Calif. — A trial court erred when it ruled that an engineering and technological solutions company failed to show that there was at least $5 million in controversy in a wage-and-hour putative class complaint by a worker, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in an unpublished memorandum, remanding for further proceedings.
January 02, 2024
Trade Group, Policy Center Support McDonald’s Petition In No-Poach Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court should grant certiorari to a fast food franchisor seeking a ruling on the appropriate analysis for Sherman Act claims regarding intrabrand hiring restraints, a nonprofit research and policy center and a trade group argue in separate amicus curiae briefs.
January 02, 2024
Groupon Establishes Education Fund For Black STEM Students To End EEOC Investigation

CHICAGO — Groupon Inc. will establish an education fund for Black science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) students and contribute $350,000 to the fund to resolve the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s review of recruitment and hiring practices, the EEOC announced.
December 20, 2023
Counsel’s Withdrawal Request Granted In Founder’s Suit Against Insolvent Insurer

DENVER — A Colorado state court judge granted a motion to withdraw filed by counsel for Friday Health Plans Management Services Co. Inc. (FHP MSC), a subsidiary of insolvent health insurer Friday Health Plans Inc. (FHP), in a breach of contract suit filed by FHP’s co-founder and former president, seeking severance after he was terminated purportedly without cause.
December 20, 2023
3rd Circuit Upholds Workers’ Exclusion From Affiliate’s ERISA Benefit Plans

PHILADELPHIA — In a nonprecedential disposition, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed that two individuals weren’t wrongfully denied participation in employee benefit plans offered by a corporation affiliated with the golf club they worked at, with one member opining that her “colleagues problematically ignore essential principles of res judicata.”
December 20, 2023
Home Depot $8.5M Settlement Approved In California Wage-And-Hour Class Suit

SAN DIEGO — A California judge granted final approval of an $8.5 million settlement to be paid by Home Depot USA Inc. to end a wage-and-hour class complaint by California hourly employees.
December 19, 2023
Amazon Drivers Tell High Court Arbitration Denial Review Not Needed In Tips Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court has already provided clear guidance regarding the applicability of Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) Section 1’s exemption to Amazon Flex delivery drivers and no further review is necessary, those drivers argue in their Dec. 18 brief opposing a petition for a writ of certiorari by Amazon.com Inc. and Amazon Logistics Inc. (together, Amazon) in a class case over tips.
December 19, 2023
DOL Announces Final Rule To Protect Miners From Surface Mobile Equipment

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Labor on Dec. 19 announced a final rule from its Mine Safety and Health Administration to protect miners from surface mobile equipment-related injuries.
December 19, 2023
Nonprofit Law Firm As Amicus Supports Employers In FAA Exemption High Court Appeal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The carveout in Section 1 of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) for workers engaged in interstate commerce extends only to those workers “who regularly carry goods and passengers across interstate or foreign borders,” the Washington Legal Foundation argues in its amicus curiae brief filed Dec. 18 in the U.S. Supreme Court, supporting the position of a baked goods company and its subsidiaries in a wage-and-hour putative collective and class case by two truck drivers.
December 14, 2023
Government Waives Response To Petition In Case Challenging Military Vaccine Mandate

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government on Dec. 13 waived its right to respond to a petition for a writ of certiorari filed in the U.S. Supreme Court by former members of the military whose challenge to a COVID-19 vaccine requirement while they were still active members was deemed moot due to their departure from the military and the termination of the mandate.
December 14, 2023
Colorado Diagnostics Company Will Pay $90,000 To Settle EEOC’s Age Bias Case

DENVER — A Colorado molecular diagnostics company will pay $90,000 and furnish other relief to settle an age discrimination lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, according to a consent decree signed by a federal judge in Colorado on Dec. 13.
December 13, 2023
Parties In Fingerprint Putative Class Suit Against Employer Announce Dismissal

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — An employer accused in a federal court in Illinois of violating that state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by collecting and storing employees’ fingerprints and the son of a deceased employee who brought a putative class complaint filed a joint stipulation of dismissal.
December 12, 2023
Uber Driver Files Supplemental Brief Urging Grant Of FAA Exemption Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An rideshare driver whose petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to decide in his putative class case whether transportation workers who transport passengers across state lines are “‘engaged in interstate commerce’” and exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) is still pending filed a supplemental brief urging the justices to grant his petition and arguing that a recent ruling by the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals “demonstrates the problems the lower courts are encountering and creating when addressing FAA exemption questions.”
December 12, 2023
Lifting Of Stay Denied In AmazonFlex Drivers’ FAA Class Exemption Case

SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington on Dec. 11 denied a motion by AmazonFlex delivery drivers to lift the stay in their putative collective and class action case alleging misclassification and exemption from the Federal Arbitration Act’s (FAA) enforcement provisions as transportation workers engaged in interstate commerce.
December 12, 2023
Class Suit Accuses NCAA, Conferences Of Fixing Prices Of Athletes’ Scholarships

OAKLAND, Calif. — Division I college sports is “a massive commercial exercise” where the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the “Power Five Conferences” bring in billions of dollars and provide “lucrative compensation” to executives, commissioners, athletic directors and coaches but fix the price of scholarships for the college athletes and “forbid, with few exceptions, any other compensation for their athletic services,” three college athletes argue in a putative class complaint filed in a federal court in California seeking treble damages for the compensation they say they would have otherwise received.
December 12, 2023
Summary Judgment Bid Mostly Fails In Suit Over Reinsurance Distributor Deal

MIAMI — A Florida federal judge on Dec. 11 mostly ruled against insurance brokerages in a case over their acquisition of a managed health care reinsurance distribution company and employment of that company’s members, granting summary judgment only “as to one theory of breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.”
December 12, 2023
Final Judgment Entered In Maine Health Workers’ COVID-19 Vaccine Challenge

BANGOR, Maine — A federal judge in Maine on Dec. 11 granted a motion for entry of final judgment by health care employers after dismissal of the claims against them by workers who refused the COVID-19 vaccine citing religious beliefs.
December 12, 2023
Jury Awards Philadelphia Doctor $15M In Title IX Gender Bias Suit

PHILADELPHIA — A federal jury in Pennsylvania on Dec. 11 returned a $15 million verdict for a Philadelphia doctor who alleged that he was forced out of his job after a female colleague initiated sexual intercourse and then later used the encounter to try and extort him.
December 11, 2023
Solicitor General Invited To Respond To Distributor’s FLSA Exemption Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 11 invited the solicitor general to file a brief expressing the views of the United States on a petition by a food distributor seeking a ruling on whether the evidence standard 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.”