Mealey's Employment : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Employment

June 12, 2024
Company Says Worker Fails To Plead Discrimination Case As To Its Vaccination Policy

PORTLAND, Ore. — In a lawsuit by a former employee alleging that her employer failed to make a good faith effort to accommodate her religious beliefs and medical disability, both of which led her to decline a company-mandated COVID-19 vaccination, which caused her dismissal, the employer moved an Oregon federal court for judgment on the pleadings, contending that the employee failed to plead facts sufficient to show that she held a bona fide religious belief that conflicted with the employer’s vaccination policy or that she was disabled within the meaning of state or federal law.
June 12, 2024
Los Angeles Jury Awards Former UCLA Doctor $14M In Gender Bias Suit Retrial

LOS ANGELES — A former University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center doctor whose previous award of more than $13 million for gender bias and retaliation claims was reversed by an appellate panel that found that “grave errors” were made during the jury trial was awarded $14 million in damages by a jury following the retrial.
June 12, 2024
9th Circuit Certifies Public Worker Military Leave Question To Wash. High Court

SEATTLE — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued an order asking the Washington Supreme Court to decide whether public employees are entitled to paid military leave under that state’s law when the worker is not “scheduled to work” based on the military leave of absence.
June 11, 2024
En Banc 9th Circuit Upholds Dismissal Of Gig Workers’ Suit Over Calif. Status Law

SAN FRANCISCO — A California law that extended the application of the “ABC test” for determining worker status and exempted certain occupations was created for “plausible reasons,” the en banc Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled June 10, upholding a trial court’s dismissal of a complaint brought by two gig workers and the operators of two mobile applications that provide delivery and rideshare services.
June 11, 2024
6th Circuit Affirms NLRB’s Jurisdiction In Audit Row Involving Multiemployer Funds

CINCINNATI — In an unpublished opinion that drew a partial dissent, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed summary judgment against multiemployer trust funds that sought to compel an employer to submit to an audit under the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
June 11, 2024
Former Walgreens Worker Asks U.S. High Court To Consider FMLA Questions

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court justices should decide whether 29 U.S. Code Section 2615(a)(1) prohibits retaliation for exercising rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and, if it does, the appropriate standard for proving such a claim, a former Walgreen Co. employee argues in a petition for a writ of certiorari filed after the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the proper standard for such claims is the but-for causation.
June 10, 2024
Rehearing Denied After 4th Circuit Vacates Wage Ruling For Jailed Workers

RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing filed by a Maryland county after a panel cleared the way for a former detainee’s collective and class wage-and-hour claims to proceed after determining that the incorrect legal standards were used when granting the county summary judgment.
June 07, 2024
Preliminary Injunction Upheld In Noncompete Suit Against Former Cigna Executive

ST. LOUIS — A trial court’s preliminary injunction in a case by Cigna Corp. seeking to enforce a noncompete agreement with a former executive was not an abuse of discretion as Missouri law was correctly interpreted and there was no clear error in the factual findings, an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, noting in part that the company where the executive went was Cigna’s “largest direct competitor.”
June 06, 2024
Judge: Amazon Immune From Workers’ Temperature Scan Class Suit Under PREP Act

CHICAGO — A warehouse worker’s putative class complaint accusing her employer of violating Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by scanning workers’ temperatures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 was terminated by a federal magistrate judge in Illinois who found that the employer was entitled to statutory immunity based on the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act).
June 06, 2024
University Of The Arts Employees File WARN Act Class Suit Following Closure

PHILADELPHIA — Nine employees of a Philadelphia university that announced May 31 that it would be closing its doors one week later filed a class complaint in a federal court in Pennsylvania seeking 60 days of pay and Employee Retirement Income Security Act benefits, alleging that the school violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act).
June 05, 2024
6th Circuit Vacates Health Care Provider’s $130,000 Vaccine Mandate Settlement

CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, in considering the second appeal in a settled case by employees over a health care provider’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy, vacated the settlement approval, finding that no named plaintiff in the case had standing as to the health care provider’s affiliates added in the settlement, resulting in the trial court lacking jurisdiction.
June 05, 2024
Petition Seeks Ruling On Legal Test For Employment Bias Circumstantial Evidence

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (FDJJ) asks the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green and its progeny provide the correct legal test for proving employment discrimination based on circumstantial evidence or whether “the less-rigorous ‘convincing mosaic’ theory” may be used.
June 04, 2024
Navy SEALs Seek Preliminary Class Settlement Approval In COVID-19 Vaccine Case

FORT WORTH, Texas — Navy SEALs and members of the Navy who sued after they were denied religious exemptions from the Navy’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement filed a motion in a federal court in Texas seeking preliminary approval of a class settlement that will provide corrections to their personnel records, policy changes, public postings and attorney fees.
June 04, 2024
U.S. Supreme Court Denies Oil Company’s Donning, Doffing Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 3 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by an oil company asking the justices to decide whether “donning and doffing generic protective clothing” is compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
June 03, 2024
Chamber Of Commerce’s Suit Over FTC’s Noncompete Rule Dismissed After Intervention

TYLER, Texas — A complaint by the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America and two other groups challenging the Federal Trade Commission’s new rule banning noncompete agreements was dismissed without prejudice by a federal judge in Texas after the Chamber and two other plaintiffs notified the court that they successfully intervened in the first-filed case filed in another federal court in the same state.
June 03, 2024
Teacher Asks 7th Circuit To Again Review Transgender Student Name Case

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana teacher seeking a religious accommodation from using transgender students’ first names filed a notice of appeal after a federal judge in that state granted summary judgment to the teacher’s employer, finding that the requested accommodation placed the school district at risk for litigation and withdrawn funding and “disrupted” its business.
June 03, 2024
DOL Accuses Hyundai, Partners Of Child Labor Violations In U.S. Facilities

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A Hyundai manufacturing plant and two partners are violating the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) child labor laws, the U.S. Department of Labor alleges in a complaint filed in a federal court in Alabama after finding that a 13-year-old worked up to 60 hours per week on an Alabama assembly line rather than attending school.
May 31, 2024
COMMENTARY: "Should I Stay Or Should I Go?”: Supreme Court Resolves FAA Circuit Split On Staying Arbitration

By Ed Mullins, James P. Duffy IV, Niyati Ahuja and Wardah A. Bari
May 29, 2024
COMMENTARY: U.S. Supreme Court Limits Appeals From Decisions Enforcing Arbitration Agreements

By David N. Cinotti
May 31, 2024
6th Circuit: Hospital Had Valid Basis To Fire Worker Who Sought ADA Accommodation

CINCINNATI — A panel of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a ruling of an Ohio federal court granting the motion for summary judgment of a hospital sued by its in-house pharmacist for denying him a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) after the hospital fired him for leaving his post before the end of his shift to avoid a co-worker exposed to COVID-19 and for terminating him in retaliation for his requesting an accommodation for his hereditary spastic paraplegia.
May 31, 2024
$2.5M Settlement Reached In Wage-And-Hour Suit Between Chauffeurs, Employers

PHOENIX — Chauffer drivers alleging on behalf of a collective and class that they were improperly denied minimum, straight and overtime wages filed a motion in a federal court in Arizona seeking preliminary approval of a $2.5 million settlement with their employers.
May 30, 2024
Amici Support Pandemic Unemployment Applicants’ Exhaustion High Court Arguments

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Chamber of Commerce of the United States and a number of other groups filed amicus curiae briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting arguments by Alabama unemployment benefits applicants who argue that their lawsuit over the delays in processing the large amount of applications filed due to the coronavirus pandemic was improperly dismissed for failure to exhaust administrative remedies.
May 29, 2024
Lyft Asks U.S. High Court To Decide Application Of Viking River In Calif. Cases

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Since Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana was decided in 2022, California courts have violated the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and the U.S. Supreme Court’s application of the FAA in Viking River by allowing non-individual claims under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) to be stayed or litigated after arbitration of individual claims has been compelled, Lyft Inc. argues in its reply brief urging the high court to grant its petition for a writ of certiorari filed after a California appellate panel permitted a rideshare driver to proceed with his non-individual PAGA misclassification claims.
May 29, 2024
8th Circuit Reverses Dismissal Of Mayo Clinic Workers’ COVID-19 Vaccine Claims

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Three workers who refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and were denied religious exemptions and two who were granted exemptions but refused their employer’s alternate testing requirements may all proceed with their religious accommodation claims against their employers as the trial court erred when it granted dismissal to The Mayo Clinic, Mayo Clinic Health System-Southeast Minnesota Region and Mayo Clinic, Ambulance (together, Mayo Clinic), an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, finding in part that the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA) provides a cause of action for failure to accommodate religious beliefs.
May 29, 2024
N.J. High Court: Real Estate Independent Contractor Agreement Is Enforceable

TRENTON, N.J. — An independent contractor agreement between a broker and a real estate salesperson is enforceable under the New Jersey Real Estate License Act, also known as the Brokers Act, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled, reversing an appellate panel’s affirmance of a trial court’s denial of a broker’s motion to dismiss and remanding for dismissal of the salesperson’s putative class complaint.