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

Mealey's Employment

March 11, 2025
Federal Government Opposes TRO Motion By African Development Agency CEO

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) acting deputy administrator and other members of the federal government and agencies filed an opposition on March 10 in a federal court in the District of Columbia opposing a motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) filed by the president and CEO of the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) seeking to stop what he alleges is a takeover of the foundation.
March 11, 2025
U.S. High Court Denies Employer’s Petition Seeking Review Of FLSA Exemption Ruling

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 10 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by an employer that classified inside sales representatives (ISRs) as exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), with the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that those workers “are not employed in a bona fide administrative capacity.”
March 11, 2025
2 High Court Justices Express Interest In Revisiting McDonnell Douglas Framework

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a March 10 dissent from the U.S. Supreme Court’s denial of a petition for a writ of certiorari in a Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 disparate treatment case, Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, stated that the case brought by a California fire chief who alleged that he was terminated based on his religion presented an opportunity the high court should have seized “to revisit McDonnell Douglas and decide whether its burden-shifting framework remains a workable and useful evidentiary tool.”
March 11, 2025
Judge Upholds Denial Of Over $1.4M In Severance Benefits In ERISA Row

HOUSTON — Asserting that two U.S. circuit courts of appeals “have read the same Plan language differently and have reached different results on similar claims,” a Texas federal judge upheld denial of $1,403,571 in severance benefits in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case that involved a change of control and disputes over a “good reason” clause and the correct standard of review.
March 11, 2025
Trade Association Asks 6th Circuit To Rehear Its Challenge To NLRB Counsel Memo

CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has asked the acting general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board to respond to a trade association’s petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc of a panel decision affirming the dismissal of the association’s suit challenging a memorandum on captive-audience meetings issued by the former general counsel; the association argues that the lower court ruling should be vacated because it became moot while the appeal was pending.
March 10, 2025
Special Counsel Moves To Dismiss Appeal, Says He No Longer Challenges Removal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger, who sued federal government officials challenging his removal without cause by President Donald J. Trump, filed a motion on March 7 in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to dismiss as moot the federal government’s appeal of a summary judgment ruling for Dellinger, writing that he “no longer contests his removal and is out of office.”
March 10, 2025
DHS: No More Collective Bargaining for TSA Security Officers

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced March 7 that it was ending collective bargaining for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) transportation security officers.
March 10, 2025
No Injunction For Unions, Group To Stop DOGE Access To Treasury Data

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two labor unions and an advocacy group that sued to stop the Department of the Treasury and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS) from allowing members of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to access BFS records saw their motion for a preliminary injunction denied March 7, with a District of Columbia federal judge concluding that they had not established a “likelihood of an irreparable injury that is ‘beyond remediation.’”
March 07, 2025
Employees Fired For Vaccine Refusal Cannot Sue Employer For Civil Rights Violation

EUGENE, Ore. — Determining that a hospital was not a state actor in terminating employees who refused the COVID-19 vaccine pursuant to the hospital’s state-law-compliant vaccination mandate and that there is no private right of action in the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) Act, an Oregon federal court granted a motion to dismiss of the hospital and its chief executive and chief medical officers in the employees’ lawsuit alleging civil rights violations, statutory violations and state law claims stemming from their termination.
March 07, 2025
Financial Advisers’ Stay, Intervention Bids Fail In Compensation Row

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Former Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. financial advisers who said they are unwilling members of a putative class in a compensation dispute were denied permission to intervene after both sides opposed their motion, with the docket showing that a North Carolina federal judge issued an oral order.
March 07, 2025
NLRB Member Reinstated By Federal Judge; Trump, NLRB Chair Appeal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald J. Trump and Marvin Kaplan, the chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, filed a notice of appeal in a federal court in the District of Columbia on March 6 after a judge in that court ruled the same day that the “[p]resident is not a king” and “does not have the authority to terminate members of the National Labor Relations Board at will.”
March 07, 2025
Groups File Suit Accusing Elon Musk, DOGE Of Illegal AI-Based Employment Moves

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A quartet of advocacy groups sued Elon Musk, U.S. DOGE Service and others in District of Columbia federal court, accusing them of using artificial intelligence to make decisions about federal employment and government contracts despite the complete lack of statutory or other authority to do so.
March 06, 2025
U.S. High Court Denies As Moot Government’s Application In Special Counsel’s Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 6 denied as moot an application by the federal government to vacate a trial court order that President Donald J. Trump does not have the authority to remove Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger without cause; the high court denial was filed one day after the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted the government’s emergency motion in the case for a stay pending appeal.
March 06, 2025
5th Circuit Dismisses SpaceX’s Appeal In Suit Challenging NLRB Structure

NEW ORLEANS — An interlocutory appeal by Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) in a lawsuit in which it challenges the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board’s structure was dismissed March 5 by a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel that found that it lacked jurisdiction; the opinion was filed two days after the NLRB filed a notice in the appeal stating that it “is modifying its position with respect to the constitutionality of removal restrictions for NLRB administrative law judges (ALJs) and Board members.”
March 06, 2025
D.C. Circuit Grants Stay Pending Appeal In Special Counsel’s Removal Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 5 granted an emergency motion for a stay pending appeal sought by the federal government after a trial court found that President Donald J. Trump does not have the authority to remove Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger without cause; the order was issued one day after the trial court denied a stay.
March 06, 2025
Stay Of Summary Judgment For Ousted MSPB Chair Denied As Government Appeals

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on March 5 denied a motion by the federal government to stay a ruling finding that President Donald J. Trump unlawfully attempted to remove the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) chair from her position and ordering that she be returned to her post; the order came one day after a flurry of filings that included the summary judgment ruling, the stay motion and the government’s notice of appeal.
March 05, 2025
Government Seeks Stay, Appeals After Ousted MSPB Chair Granted Summary Judgment

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government on March 4 filed a notice of appeal and a motion to stay pending appeal in a federal court in the District of Columbia on the same day that a federal judge in that court granted summary judgment to the ousted chair of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), ordered that she be returned to the MSPB until her term expires unless cause existed and enjoined the government from removing her from office without cause.
March 05, 2025
Employee Objection To COVID-19 Vaccine Was Medical, Not Religious, Judge Concludes

CHICAGO — Deeming an employee’s objections to the COVID-19 vaccine medical rather than religious, an Illinois federal judge granted her employer’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed the employee’s lawsuit alleging that she was denied a religious accommodation for the employer’s mandatory vaccination policy in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
March 05, 2025
10th Circuit Panel Denies Rehearing In Employee’s COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal Case

DENVER — A panel of the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has denied a petition for rehearing and for rehearing en banc filed by a former nursing center employee seeking review of a panel judgment affirming the dismissal of her First Amendment free exercise claim stemming from her termination for refusing to be vaccinated for COVID-19 as mandated by a state health board emergency rule.
March 05, 2025
Accommodation Of Religious Objection To Vaccine That Violates Law An Undue Burden

NEW YORK — Ruling that an accommodation to an employee’s religious objection to COVID vaccination and testing that would violate a state law is an undue burden on an employer, a panel of the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a judgment of a New York federal court granting summary judgment in favor of a school district in an employee’s lawsuit alleging that the district violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by refusing her such an accommodation and violated the Genetic Information Discrimination Act (GINA) in asking questions about her family medical history.
March 04, 2025
Federal Government Denied Stay After Ruling For Special Counsel In Removal Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government filed in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 3 an emergency motion to stay pending appeal a District Court order finding that President Donald J. Trump does not have the authority to remove Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger without cause; the emergency motion was filed the same day a federal judge in the District of Columbia denied the government’s motion in that court for a stay pending appeal.
March 04, 2025
8th Circuit Affirms Rulings For Former Exec In ERISA ‘Top Hat’ Plan Case

ST. LOUIS — Saying that “[c]ontracts may refer to something that is non-existent without posing an interpretive problem,” an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a judgment ordering payment of nearly $5 million in deferred compensation benefits and $19,177.50 in attorney fees plus interest in a dispute over a “top hat” plan.
March 04, 2025
U.S. High Court Denies Petition In Police Officer’s Social Media, Suspension Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 3 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a police officer who raised tolling and grievance questions after a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that the officer, in alleging that his suspension over Facebook posts constituted First Amendment violations under 42 U.S. Code Section 1983, failed to show that the clock on his claims was stalled while he challenged his suspension or that the applicable one-year prescriptive period was interrupted by two state court petitions.
March 04, 2025
Former Detainee Opposes Md. County’s High Court Petition In Wage Class, Collective

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A petition for a writ of certiorari by a Maryland county seeking a ruling on “[w]hether inmates working in furtherance of public works projects for the government charged with their custody and care” are employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) should be denied as there is no split of authority and the case is a poor vehicle, a former detainee argues in his March 3 response that was requested by the U.S. Supreme Court.
March 04, 2025
Panel: Coverage Barred For $3M Judgment Over Unpaid Wages, Commissions Claims

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that a breach of contract exclusion barred employment practices liability and directors and officers liability coverage for a more than $3 million underlying state court judgment in favor of former employees who sued the insured for breach of contract for unpaid wages and commissions, affirming a lower court’s ruling in favor of the insurer in its declaratory judgment lawsuit.