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

Mealey's Employment

March 19, 2025
9th Circuit Vacates Remand Order In Wage Class Suit Against Funeral Home

PASADENA, Calif. — A trial court judge failed to properly evaluate an employer’s violation-rate assumption in a wage-and-hour putative class suit, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, vacating an order sending the case back to state court.
March 19, 2025
Alaska High Court Upholds Principal’s Firing Over ‘Disrespectful’ Coaster Design

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Alaska Supreme Court affirmed a school board’s firing of a principal for allegedly violating antiharassment policies and related state regulations through the creation of a “disrespectful” coaster design featuring the school’s logo but reversed a decision to deny back pay from the time of termination through the date of the board’s post-termination hearing.
March 18, 2025
Judge Says Expert Is Excluded As Irrelevant In Employment Discrimination Case

CHICAGO — An expert who will opine that a woman was not at fault for a strategy coding error that her former employer cited as the reason for her termination cannot testify because his opinions are irrelevant to her claims for gender and race discrimination, an Illinois federal judge ruled March 17.
March 18, 2025
EEOC Acting Chair Seeks Info From Law Firms On DEI Practices

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced March 17 that it sent letters to 20 law firms seeking information about their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) related employment practices.
March 18, 2025
Split 9th Circuit Denies Administrative Stay Of Federal Worker Reinstatements

SAN FRANCISCO — A divided Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 17 denied an emergency motion by the federal government for an immediate administrative stay of a trial court order directing the reinstatement of probationary workers from six federal agencies who were fired en masse.
March 17, 2025
Veterans, Government Dismiss ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Suit After Settlement

SAN FRANCISCO — Veterans and the federal government filed a joint stipulation of dismissal in a federal court in California in the veterans’ class lawsuit one day after a magistrate judge granted final approval of a class settlement that provides removal of references to sexual orientation from the discharge paperwork of servicemembers discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) and other similar policies.
March 14, 2025
Federal Government Appeals TRO Grant, Extension In En Masse Firings Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and other federal government parties sued by several unions and other groups seeking to enjoin the terminations of tens of thousands of federal workers filed a notice of appeal on March 13 in a federal court in California following a ruling by a federal judge granting and extending a temporary restraining order.
March 14, 2025
Judge Orders Reinstatement Of Terminated Federal Workers In Multiple Agencies

BALTIMORE — A federal judge in Maryland on March 13 granted a temporary restraining order filed by 20 states that allege that the mass firing of federal civil servants violates federal law and directed that the terminated probationary workers nationwide be reinstated in all agencies identified in the case except for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and National Archives and Records Administration.
March 14, 2025
Judge Finds President’s Removal Of FLRA Member ‘Unlawful,’ Orders Reinstatement

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald J. Trump’s removal of the Federal Relations Labor Authority (FLRA) chair three weeks after his inauguration without explanation was the first time in the FLRA’s nearly 50 year history a member has been removed, and the action was “unlawful,” a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled, ordering de facto reinstatement.
March 13, 2025
Judge Allows States Discovery Into DOGE’s, Musk’s Authority In Firings, Data Access

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Fourteen states that sued over purported violations of the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution were given the opportunity to take expedited discovery on actions taken by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), its personnel and Elon Musk, with a District of Columbia federal judge on March 12 finding that their discovery requests were, largely, narrowly tailored and pertinent to their forthcoming preliminary injunction motion.
March 13, 2025
States Sue To Halt ‘Dismantling’ Of U.S. Department Of Education

BOSTON — New York, more than a dozen other states and Michigan’s attorney general filed a complaint on March 13 in a federal court in Massachusetts alleging that a March 11 announcement that 50% of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) staff would be laid off is “an effective dismantling of the Department,” an action that is outside the power President Donald J. Trump and his administration.
March 13, 2025
Perkins Coie Granted TRO In Suit Alleging Trump’s EO Seeks To ‘Destroy’ Firm

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on March 12 granted Perkins Coie LLP’s motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) in its lawsuit against various federal officials and agencies over a March 6 executive order (EO) that it alleges is meant to “bully” the firm and punish the firm’s more than 1,200 attorneys “even though the two attorneys the Order appears to target have not been with the firm for years.”
March 13, 2025
DOL, DOGE, Others Ask Court To Rethink Expedited Discovery In Unions’ APA Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of Labor (DOL), the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and other parties accused of improperly providing access to citizens’ confidential information to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) filed a motion asking a District of Columbia federal judge to reconsider his recent grant of expedited discovery to the plaintiff labor unions and nonprofits, asserting that changes to the “factual predicates” have “obviate[d] the need” for such discovery.
March 13, 2025
Federal Judge In Washington Denies Amazon Driver’s Wage Act Ruling Appeal

SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington denied a motion filed by a driver for Amazon.com Inc. and Amazon Logistics Inc. (together, Amazon) to certify a question to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court asking “whether the Massachusetts Wage Act requires an employer to compensate employees for business expenses required in order for a worker to perform their job,” finding that the argument for the question was not “compelling.”
March 13, 2025
Post-Trial Briefs Largely Denied Following $3.9M Verdict For Fired Dean

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — In a trio of rulings, a federal judge denied a Pennsylvania university’s motion for judgment as a matter of law or a new trial after a jury returned a verdict of more than $3.9 million for a former dean who alleged that he was fired for helping another worker report sexual harassment by the university president, denied the dean’s request for an additional award, granted the dean pre- and postjudgment interest and ordered that the dean’s motion for attorney fees remain stayed during the time in which the school may appeal.
March 13, 2025
3rd Circuit Denies Home Health Agency Rehearing After Finding FLSA Violation

PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc filed by a home health care agency and its president after a panel affirmed a trial court’s grant of summary judgment to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on claims that the agency willfully violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by, among other things, failing to compensate its employees for the time they spent traveling between clients’ homes.
March 12, 2025
DOGE Ordered To Process FOIA Request On Mass Firings, Disruption To Government

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. DOGE Service (DOGE) must process “on an expedited timetable” a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) that seeks documents related to mass firings of government workers and disruptions to federal programs, a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled, granting in part CREW’s motion for a preliminary injunction.
March 12, 2025
Defendants Win Compensation Row; Judge Rules Plan A Bonus One Exempt From ERISA

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Finding that the plan at the center of a compensation dispute “is a bonus plan exempt from” the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, a North Carolina federal judge granted summary judgment in favor of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. and other defendants in a putative class action.
March 12, 2025
5th Circuit Affirms Ruling For Employer In Pension, Shift-Differential Row

NEW ORLEANS — In an unpublished per curiam opinion, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act preempts a Louisiana Wage Payment Act (LWPA) claim concerning a lump-sum pension payment and that summary judgment for an employer on a claim concerning shift-differential pay was appropriate.
March 12, 2025
African Development Agency CEO’s TRO Request Denied In Suit Alleging Takeover

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on March 11 denied a motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) filed by the president and CEO of the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) in a lawsuit alleging a wrongful takeover by the federal government is occurring, opining that the president and CEO failed to identify irreparable harm to himself.
March 12, 2025
Split D.C. Circuit Enforces NLRB Ruling In Dispute Over Impasse, Employment Terms

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A split District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied an employer’s petition for review of a National Labor Relations Board decision in a case in which the employer alleged that it reached an impasse while trying to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement and accused the union of engaging in delay tactics both before and during the coronavirus pandemic.
March 12, 2025
5th Circuit: No Claim For Relief In Sheriff’s Office Staff Time Off Policy Suit

HOUSTON — Employees in a Texas county sheriff’s office who sued their employer over a compensatory time off policy alleging that it deprived them of their constitutional and statutory rights “have not stated a plausible claim for relief,” a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said in affirming a district court’s dismissal of their complaint.
March 11, 2025
Workday Says AI-Hiring Suit Inappropriate For Collective Action

SAN FRANCISCO — A lawsuit targeting artificial intelligence hiring software involves too many individual questions surrounding applications, qualifications and the plaintiffs and are “dissimilar in virtually all the ways that matter,” Workday Inc. told a federal judge in California in opposing certification as a collective action.
March 11, 2025
Employer Says Employee Did Not Establish Religious Conflict With COVID-19 Vaccine

PORTLAND, Ore. — Contending that a former employee did not establish a conflict between her faith and the COVID-19 vaccine and that accommodating her objection to the vaccine would impose an undue burden on the company, a sportswear company has moved for summary judgment in a lawsuit by the employee, who alleged that the company failed to make a good faith effort to accommodate her religious beliefs in terminating her.
March 11, 2025
Federal Government Opposes States’ TRO Motion In Suit Over Civil Servant Terminations

BALTIMORE — A motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) filed by 20 states that allege that the mass firing of civil servants violates federal law and is subjecting the states to “chaos” should not be granted as the states can’t show standing, jurisdiction, actions contrary to law or irreparable harm, federal agencies and their leaders argue in a March 10 opposition filed in a federal court in Maryland.