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Mealey's Employment

February 12, 2025
$22.6M FBI Basic Training Gender Bias Class Settlement Granted Final Approval

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A joint stipulation to file a sixth amended complaint in a gender bias case by female employees of the FBI was filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia one business day after a judge in that court granted final approval of a $22.6 million class settlement over those claims in the case that alleged gender bias during basic training.
February 12, 2025
6th Circuit Affirms Former Exec’s Losses In ‘Top Hat’ Severance Benefits Row

CINCINNATI — Affirming that the executive severance plan at issue in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit “qualifies as a top-hat plan,” a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel upheld discovery and judgment on the administrative record rulings against the appellant and found no error in the striking of his jury demand.
February 12, 2025
Former Jewish Group Worker Seeks Rehearing After 9th Circuit Finds Claims Barred

PASADENA, Calif. — A ruling by a split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel finding employment-related claims barred by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution’s ministerial exception was “a matter of first impression” and “expanded the . . . Ministerial Exception beyond anything envisioned or permitted by the Supreme Court,” a former employee of a Jewish organization argues in his petition for rehearing en banc and petition for panel rehearing.
February 11, 2025
Rehearing Sought After Minimum Wage Ruling Against Detention Center Operator

SEATTLE — A for-profit company that runs the Northwest Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center (NWIPC) filed a petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc after a split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that the application of the Washington Minimum Wage Act (WMWA) to voluntary work programs (VWP) for federal immigration detainees housed at NWIPC does not violate the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity, the state law is not preempted by federal law and the NWIPC operator does not have derivative sovereign immunity.
February 11, 2025
Federal Workers’ Unions Request Notice Of Deferred Resignation Stay

BOSTON — Unions that represent federal government workers and have sued over the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) alleged “deferred resignation” program filed a motion in a federal court in Massachusetts on Feb. 10 seeking clarification of an order issued that day and requesting that the federal government be directed to notify workers that a stay of directive’s deadline is “to remain in effect until further order of the Court.”
February 11, 2025
Removed NLRB Member Says Ouster Violated NLRA, Seeks Expedited Summary Judgment

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Five days after suing over her removal by President Donald J. Trump, Gwynne A. Wilcox, the ousted National Labor Relations Board member, filed a motion on Feb. 10 in a federal court in the District of Columbia for expedited summary judgment, arguing that her removal was unlawful and left the NLRB without “a quorum, leaving it unable to fulfill its critical role in adjudicating labor disputes.”
February 11, 2025
AI Employment Discrimination Plaintiffs Seek Conditional Certification

SAN FRANCISCO — Job seekers who claim they were discriminated against by an artificial intelligence hiring tool asked a federal judge in California to approve conditional certification of the collective action, saying the move will help protect prospective class members and ensure efficient resolution of the case.
February 11, 2025
Federal Worker Union Files 2 Complaints Over CFPB Halted Work, Data Access

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) filed two complaints in a federal court in the District of Columbia against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) acting director, one seeking to halt the access to CFPB systems, including employee information, for members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and one challenging the directive for CFPB employees to stop their supervision and enforcement work.
February 11, 2025
5th Circuit Revives Miss. Man’s Whistleblower, 1st Amendment Retaliation Claims

GREENVILLE, Miss. — Following a ruling on a certified question by the Mississippi Supreme Court, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said a man who was allegedly fired from his job after reporting “inefficiency and incompetence” within the workplace can still bring claims of retaliation against his employer pursuant to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Mississippi Whistleblower Protection Act (MWPA) after finding that the claims were timely filed.
February 10, 2025
NLRB To Supreme Court: NLRA Interpretation Petition Should Be Denied

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A petition for a writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court justices to decide whether deferring an interpretation of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to the National Labor Relations Board violates Loper Bright Enterprises, Inc. v. Raimondo should be denied as Loper Bright did not apply to the case, there is no circuit conflict and the case presents “a particularly unsuitable vehicle to address the question presented,” the NRLB argues in a Feb. 7 respondent brief that had been requested by the justices.
February 10, 2025
2nd Circuit Vacates Ruling Against Union In Benefits Row Involving Expired CBA

NEW YORK — Saying in part that language incorporated by reference in an expired collective bargaining agreement (CBA) “can be reasonably understood as guaranteeing benefits beyond the contract’s expiration or as constituting deferred compensation,” a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated and remanded a ruling that a dispute over Xerox Corp.’s termination of certain retiree health benefits was not arbitrable.
February 10, 2025
Limited TRO Entered In 2 Unions’ Suit Seeking To Halt USAID Changes

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Feb. 7 in a case filed by two unions challenging the alleged dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) entered a temporary restraining order (TRO) halting the placement of USAID employees on administrative leave and the expedited evacuation of USAID employees from their host counties but declined to stop the secretary of State’s pause on “all new obligations of funding” for USAID-funded foreign assistance programs.
February 10, 2025
TRO Request Denied In Suit Seeking To Halt DOGE’s Access To DOL’s Private Info

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia in a Feb. 7 memorandum opinion and order expressed “concerns” about the alleged access to nonpublic U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) information and data being provided to personnel from the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but denied a motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) filed by five unions and one nonprofit think tank for failure to establish standing.
February 10, 2025
2 Nonprofits File Complaint, 3rd Over EO Ending Civil Servants’ Job Protections

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald J. Trump is “attempt[ing] to dismantle a cornerstone of American democracy: a federal civil service rooted in merit and integrity,” a complaint by two nonprofits filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia alleges, challenging a Jan. 20 executive order (EO) that they say strips thousands of career civil servants of employment protections; the complaint is the third filed by various groups challenging that EO.
February 10, 2025
TRO Ruling Deferred After Government Agrees Not To ID FBI Workers On Trump Cases

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government will not publicly release the identities of Federal Bureau of Investigation workers involved in investigating two events involving President Donald J. Trump at least until after ruling is issued on anticipated motions for a preliminary injunction in two cases seeking to stop such disclosures, according to a consent decree signed by a federal judge in the District of Columbia on Feb. 7.
February 07, 2025
2 Unions’ Complaint Seeks Relief From Alleged Dismantling Of USAID

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald J. Trump and his administration “have systematically dismantled the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)” through unconstitutional and illegal actions, two labor unions argue in a complaint filed Feb. 6 in a federal court in the District of Columbia seeking to reverse the actions already taken and “halt any further steps to dissolve the agency.”
February 07, 2025
2nd Military Transgender Ban Suit Filed As Housing Decision Reversed In 1st

SEATTLE — Seven servicemembers and a civil and human rights organization filed a complaint on Feb. 6 in a federal court in Washington challenging President Donald J. Trump’s executive order (EO) banning transgender people from the military; the complaint was filed one day after the military filed a notice in a similar case in a federal court in the District of Columbia that it was returning a servicemember who is a plaintiff in that case to the female barracks and assigning her a single female “battle buddy” after having moved her to a private single room and assigning her two battle buddies, one male and one female.
February 07, 2025
10th Circuit Affirms Ruling For Worker In ERISA Severance Dispute

DENVER — In an unpublished order and judgment noting the “stark” change in responsibilities that occurred after a change of control, a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed that a former employee was due severance benefits in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act case that involved disputes over a “good reason” clause and the correct standard of review.
February 06, 2025
Acting Labor Secretary Tells High Court No Review Of FLSA Exemption Needed

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals correctly ruled that inside sales representatives (ISRs) “are not employed in a bona fide administrative capacity” and so no review by the U.S. Supreme Court is necessary, the acting secretary of Labor writes in a Feb. 5 brief opposing a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by industrial product wholesaler.
February 06, 2025
5th Circuit: Minimum Wage EO Is Permitted Exercise Of Authority Under FPASA

NEW ORLEANS — A 2021 executive order (EO) by then-President Joseph R. Biden requiring various federal agencies to ensure that contractors and covered subcontractors pay specified workers a minimum of $15 per hour was “a valid exercise of the President’s authority under the FPASA [Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949],” a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, reversing a trial court’s decision to permanently enjoin the EO and remanding for the trial court to consider in the first instance whether the major questions doctrine applies and, if it does, whether the EO violates it.
February 06, 2025
Unions, Groups Allege DOGE Is Seizing Private Info While Dismantling Government

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Personnel from the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have entered several federal agencies in the last two weeks, seized data, including “sensitive personnel data,” taken employment action against those who resist the efforts and started to transform or “fully dismantle” the agencies, five unions and one nonprofit think tank allege in a complaint filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia on Feb. 5, the same day the unions and group moved for a temporary restraining order to halt the seizure of data from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
February 06, 2025
Workers: 1 Class Properly Certified, 3 Others Should Be Too In Vaccine Mandate Case

NEW ORLEANS — A trial court properly certified a class of customer-facing workers who sought religious accommodations from United Airlines Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine policy and were place on unpaid leave for an indefinite amount of time, but the court erred by leaving certain workers outside of the certified class and by denying certification of three other proposed classes, United Airlines workers argue in an appellee/cross-appellant brief filed in the Fifth Circuit U.S Court of Appeals.
February 05, 2025
Ousted NLRB Member Sues New Chairman, Trump Alleging Removal Was Illegal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The first Black female to serve on the National Labor Relations Board sued President Donald J. Trump and the new NLRB chairman on Feb. 5 in a federal court in the District of Columbia alleging that her removal from the board before her term was up was “unprecedented and illegal” and “effectively [shuts] down” the NLRB as its left without a quorum.
February 05, 2025
Battery Maker Seeks Rehearing After 3rd Circuit Rules On Back Pay In DOL Case

PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania battery manufacturer filed a petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc after a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that it must pay its workers for the true time they spend completing tasks and not the time the employer determines is “reasonable” and bears the burden of proving that such time is de minimis when using that defense.
February 05, 2025
FBI Workers Involved In Trump Cases File 2 Suits To Keep Identities Private

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two complaints, one of which is a putative class action, and two motions for temporary restraining orders (TROs) were filed Feb. 4 by current and former employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Agents Association (FBIAA) in a federal court in the District of Columbia seeking to stop the publication or dissemination of a list allegedly being compiled of FBI employees who were involved in investigating two events involving President Donald J. Trump; the complaints allege that releasing the workers’ identifies will violate their privacy rights and put them at risk of retribution.