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Mealey's Employment

October 25, 2023
COMMENTARY: Neurotechnology In The Workplace: A Futuristic Reality

By Jeremy Ben Merkelson, Wendy Kearns, Michael Borgia and Tanner Harris
October 25, 2023
Bank Workers Fired For Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine Appeal Summary Judgment

NEW YORK — Two former employees of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) who were fired after refusing to follow a COVID-19 vaccination policy based on religious beliefs filed a notice on Oct. 24 that they are appealing a ruling by a federal judge in New York granting summary judgment to FRBNY.
October 25, 2023
Del. Court: Worker Contracted COVID-19 On The Job, But Disease Isn’t Occupational

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Perdue Farms Inc. employee showed that he contracted COVID-19 at the Perdue plant but failed to show that his illness was an occupational disease pursuant to the Delaware Worker’s Compensation Act (WCA), a Delaware judge ruled, affirming a decision by the Industrial Accident Board denying the worker’s petition to determine compensation due.
October 24, 2023
2 Amici File Briefs Supporting Southwest In Worker’s Protected Speech Case

NEW ORLEANS — Two nonprofits filed separate amicus curiae briefs in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals supporting an airline’s arguments that a jury and trial court erred in finding that a flight attendant was fired for sending social media messages about abortion and in ordering the airline’s attorneys to attend religious liberty training from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF); meanwhile, ADF filed its own amicus brief in support of neither side defending its ability to “provide comprehensive and professional legal training about the religious liberty requirements of Title VII” of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
October 24, 2023
9th Circuit: Wrong Review Applied In Wage Case, But Error Was Harmless

DENVER — A federal court in Colorado applied the wrong standard when it reviewed a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation regarding an emergency motion sought by workers seeking to halt a nationwide wage and hour settlement in another court that would impact their claims, but “the error was harmless,” a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming the denial of the workers’ injunction motion.
October 23, 2023
Kan. Federal Judge Dismisses Some Of Native American Woman’s Discrimination Claims

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A Native American woman who says she was subject to racial harassment and discrimination by her employer failed to allege facts in support of her hostile work environment claim and failed to bring her retaliatory harassment claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a Kansas federal judge found Oct. 20 in partly granting the employer’s motion to dismiss.
October 23, 2023
9th Circuit Wage Appeal Remanded For Consideration Of $3.5M Settlement

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 20 granted a motion for limited remand of an appeal following a jury verdict in a wage-and-hour case for two cheese manufacturers for the limited purpose of approving the parties’ $3.5 million class settlement agreement that would settle the case and several similar cases.
October 23, 2023
Military Members’ Vaccine Cases Dismissed After Undisclosed Costs Settlement

TAMPA, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida in an Oct. 20 docket entry dismissed with prejudice two complaints by military members challenging a COVID-19 vaccine mandate; the order was filed one day after the parties filed a joint stipulation of dismissal after reaching an undisclosed settlement on costs.
October 23, 2023
Housekeeper Files Class Suit Against DoubleTree Under Los Angeles 2022 Ordinance

LOS ANGELES — A hotel housekeeper filed a class complaint in a California court accusing her employer of violating the Los Angeles Hotel Worker Protection Ordinance; her attorneys say it’s the first case to be filed under the 2022 ordinance intended to protect hotel workers from sexual assault.
October 20, 2023
Arkansas, 15 Other States As Amici: Job Transfers Not Actionable Under Title VII

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A lateral transfer does not constitute discrimination and is not actionable under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Arkansas and 15 other states argue in an amicus brief filed in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of arguments made by St. Louis in a case brought by a police sergeant who alleges that her forced job transfer was based on her gender and thus discriminatory.
October 20, 2023
Dollar General Will Pay $1M To Settle EEOC Disability Bias, GINA Lawsuit

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A variety store chain will pay $1 million and provide other relief to settle a case brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in a federal court in Alabama alleging that its hiring practices violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA), the EEOC announced Oct. 20.
October 20, 2023
Interim Class Counsel Appointed In Amazon COVID-19 Screenings Case

FRESNO, Calif. — A federal judge in California appointed Hodges & Foty LLP interim class counsel in a case by employees accusing Amazon.com Services LLC of failing to pay workers for time spent undergoing COVID-19 symptom screenings before their shifts.
October 19, 2023
Air, Space Force Members Argue For Denial Of Certiorari In Vaccine Mandate Appeal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court should not grant a petition for a writ of certiorari by the Air Force secretary and others seeking vacatur of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that left in place class certification and a classwide injunction in a vaccine mandate case where the mandate has since been rescinded, members of the U.S. Air Force and Space Force who refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine for religious reasons argue in an Oct. 18 opposition brief, asserting that the appeal is not moot.
October 18, 2023
Acting DOL Secretary’s Motion For Liquidated Damages After $22M Wage Verdict Denied

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — An award of liquidated damages following a $22 million verdict in a back wages case against a battery manufacturer is not appropriate as the employer, East Penn Manufacturing Co. Inc., showed good faith and “that it was objectively reasonable in its belief that it complied with the” Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled Oct. 18, denying a motion by the acting secretary of Labor.
October 17, 2023
Supreme Court Asks For Response From Food Sales Reps To FLSA Exemption Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court asked food sales representatives who were paid by commission to respond to a petition by their employer that requests that the high court justices decide a question concerning the evidence necessary for an exemption to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
October 17, 2023
Former Twitter Employees File Amended ERISA Suit For Severance Benefits

SAN FRANCISCO — Adding a new Employee Retirement Income Security Act claim and allegations of “a campaign of deception” and benefits accruing to the company and Elon Musk instead of participants, former Twitter employees filed an amended complaint in California federal court over severance benefits they claim a putative class was promised.
October 16, 2023
6th Circuit Denies Rehearing After Upholding University’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing en banc filed by a Michigan State University (MSU) worker after a Sixth Circuit panel ruled in the putative class complaint that the school’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate did not violate employees’ constitutional rights and was not preempted by federal law.
October 16, 2023
Supreme Court Grants Certiorari In 2nd Challenge To Chevron Deference

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 13 granted a petition for a writ of certiorari in a second case challenging the doctrine of Chevron deference and ordered that it be briefed on a schedule allowing argument “in tandem” with a pending case pertaining to the same issue, both of which involve challenges to regulations that require fishing vessels to pay federal monitors.
October 13, 2023
EEOC Announces Pharma Companies Will Pay $2.4M To End Age Bias Class Case

INDIANAPOLIS — Lilly USA LLC and its parent company, Eli Lilly and Co., will pay $2.4 million and provide other relief to settle a class case in a federal court in Indiana alleging that the two companies failed to hire older pharmaceutical sales representatives, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Oct. 12.
October 12, 2023
Veteran Asks High Court To Find Enhanced Veterans’ Education Benefits Exist

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A veteran challenging a ruling by the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals regarding how education benefits under two GI bills are capped argues in his reply brief filed Oct. 11 in the U.S. Supreme Court that veterans who earn those benefits have the right to use both and that the only limits on the use of the benefits is that “they may not use more than 48 months of total education benefits” and “may not use more than one set of benefits at a time”; the veteran adds that the secretary of Veterans Affairs’ concession in the respondent brief that no veteran has to make a 38 U.S. Code Section 3327(d) election to use Post 9/11 benefits “should end the case.”
October 11, 2023
St. Louis To High Court: Job Transfer Bias Requires ‘Material, Objective Harm’

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An employee who alleges that a job transfer or reassignment was biased in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “must show a significant disadvantage in the form of material, objective harm,” St. Louis tells the U.S. Supreme Court in its Oct. 11 respondent brief addressing arguments by a police sergeant who alleges that her forced job transfer was based on her gender and thus discriminatory.
October 12, 2023
Judge Leaves Tesla Race Bias Verdict Untouched After Post-Trial Motions

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California denied post-trial motions by both sides in a case accusing Tesla Inc. of a racist and hostile work environment following a nearly $3.2 million verdict for a former worker after a retrial on compensatory and punitive damages.
October 12, 2023
9th Circuit: Accrued Vacation Owed When Hotel Announced Pandemic Temporary Layoff

PASADENA, Calif. — A hotel chain owed workers accrued vacation pay when it temporarily laid them off at the start of the coronavirus pandemic as that was “a discharge that triggers the prompt payments provision of” California Labor Code Section 201, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, partially reversing a trial court’s summary judgment ruling for Hyatt Corp.
October 11, 2023
3rd Circuit: Newspaper’s Shift Guarantee Stopped When CBA Ended

PHILADELPHIA — A shift guarantee for certain paper handlers employed by a Pennsylvania newspaper contained in collective bargaining agreement (CBA) was not “part of the post-expiration status quo,” but the National Labor Relations Board must still determine on remand whether the newspaper “engaged in adequate effects bargaining,” a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, granting the newspaper’s petition for review of an NLRB ruling and remanding for further consideration.
October 11, 2023
10th Circuit: Arbitrator Must Decide Arbitrability Of California Wage Claims

DENVER — An arbitrator and not the court must decide the applicability of an arbitration agreement between an investigative services company and employees when it comes to certain California wage-and-hour claims made in a complaint accusing the employer of denying the workers overtime and creating an environment in which they had to work unpaid overtime, a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled in a decision in which certification of the California class was also vacated for the trial court to “properly consider predominance.”