Mealey's Employment
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January 08, 2025
United Airlines Settles EEOC Race, National Origin Bias Case For $99,000
DENVER — United Airlines Inc. will pay $99,000 to end a complaint by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that the company allowed an Asian American employee of Mongolian ancestry to be called a racial slur, physically assaulted and have his employment threatened and then delayed an investigation, according to a consent decree signed by a federal judge in Colorado.
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January 08, 2025
3rd Circuit Affirms Back Pay Award, Denial Of Liquidated Damages In DOL Suit
PHILADELPHIA — An employer 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, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, leaving untouched a $22 million back wages verdict in a case brought by the secretary of Labor and upholding the trial court’s denial of liquidated damages.
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January 07, 2025
Jewish Organization Worker To Seek Rehearing After Ministerial Exception Ruling
PASADENA, Calif. — A former employee of a Jewish organization filed a motion on Jan. 6 for an extension of time to seek a rehearing after a split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel agreed with the district court that the worker’s employment-related claims were barred by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution’s ministerial exception.
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January 07, 2025
Class Certified In Worker’s WARN Act Case Against Digital News Company
NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York certified a class of workers terminated by a now-defunct news organization, The Messenger, who allege that the mass layoff by JAF Communications Inc. violated the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.
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January 06, 2025
More Than $60M In Settlements Preliminarily OK’d In No-Poaching Class Case
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A federal judge in Connecticut on Jan. 3 granted preliminary approval of more than $60 million in settlements reached in a class case by workers who accuse aerospace engineering firms and executives of conspiring to not solicit, recruit, hire without prior approval or otherwise compete for engineers and other skilled employees.
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January 06, 2025
Ex-Employee Fired For Refusing COVID Vaccine Amends Discrimination Complaint
PORTLAND, Ore. — A former employee of a sportswear company who was terminated after declining a company-mandated COVID-19 vaccination filed an amended complaint alleging that her employer failed to make a good faith effort to accommodate her religious beliefs, dropping a medical disability-based claim that was dismissed by an Oregon federal judge pursuant to the employer’s motion for judgment on the pleadings.
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January 06, 2025
U.S. As Amicus Supports Vacatur Of Judgment In Sexual Orientation Bias Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “imposes the same evidentiary burdens on all plaintiffs,” and the evidentiary standards in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green “do not vary,” the United States argues in an amicus brief filed in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting vacatur of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judgment in a heterosexual worker’s case alleging discrimination based on sexual orientation.
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January 03, 2025
Expressive Association Claims Reinstated In Case Over Reproductive Choice Labor Law
NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a Jan. 2 opinion vacated dismissal of expressive association claims brought by three employers in a case challenging a New York act that prohibits “discrimination based on an employee’s or a dependent’s reproductive health decision making” and remanded for the trial court to decide whether any of the employers made a plausible claim in light of Slattery v. Hochul.
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January 03, 2025
RTX’s $34M Settlement In No-Poaching Class Case Brings Total To More Than $60M
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Workers who accuse aerospace engineering firms, senior executives and managers of conspiring to not solicit, recruit, hire without prior approval or otherwise compete for engineers and other skilled employees filed a motion in a federal court in Connecticut seeking preliminary approval of a $34 million settlement with RTX Corp., Pratt & Whitney Division.
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January 02, 2025
Amicus, Company To High Court: Dismissal Pending Arbitration Was Not End Of Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — An employee’s voluntary dismissal of an age bias suit pending arbitration is not a “final” proceeding, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America argues in amicus brief supporting an energy company’s position that a trial court lacked jurisdiction over the employee’s Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b) motion.
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January 02, 2025
DOL Acting Secretary Granted Extension To Respond To FLSA Exemption Petition
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court granted the U.S. Department of Labor’s acting secretary’s request to have until Feb. 5 to respond to a petition for a writ of certiorari by an industrial product wholesaler asking the justices to decide whether a “judicially created ‘relational analysis’ can be used to decide the FLSA’s [Fair Labor Standards Act] administrative exemption, in contravention of the Secretary’s regulations.”
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December 20, 2024
After Partial Dismissal, Garda Data Breach Suit Settled, Stayed, Closed
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — On the heels of a ruling in which she partly granted a security firm’s motion to dismiss privacy and negligence claims over a data breach that exposed employees’ personally identifiable information (PII), a Florida federal judge granted the plaintiffs’ motion to stay the suit in light of a postruling announcement that the parties reached a conditional settlement of the putative class action.
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December 20, 2024
Split 9th Circuit: Arbitrator Ruling Can Preclude Relitigation Of SOX Issues
PASADENA, Calif. — While a ruling by an arbitrator can’t preclude a Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) claim, it can “preclude relitigation of issues underlying such a claim,” a divided Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming dismissal of a whistleblower retaliation claim.
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December 19, 2024
11th Circuit Upholds Ruling Against Starbucks In COBRA Notice Case Arbitration Bid
ATLANTA — Upholding a ruling in a dispute over allegedly deficient Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) notice, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled in part that the spouse of a former Starbucks worker “was not a party to the arbitration agreement” and therefore “cannot be compelled to arbitrate absent another principle of law or equity.”
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December 19, 2024
FedEx Worker Whose $366M Retaliation Verdict Was Slashed Announces Settlement
HOUSTON — A former FedEx Corporate Services Inc. employee whose more than $366 million jury verdict in a retaliation case was reduced to less than $250,000 filed a notice of settlement in a federal court in Texas less than three months after the U.S. Supreme Court denied her petition for a writ of certiorari.
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December 19, 2024
Worker Granted Extension To Respond To Class Tolling High Court Petition
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 18 granted a motion by Union Pacific Railroad Co. workers for an extension of time to respond to a petition by the company seeking a ruling on whether tolling under American Pipe & Construction Co. v. Utah extends “to non-class members so long as they were not ‘unambiguously excluded” from the class.
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December 18, 2024
Morgan Stanley Expenses Settlement Reaffirmed, Attorney Fees Disgorgement Denied
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California reaffirmed the fairness of a more than $10 million settlement in a case accusing Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (MSSB) of various wage violations and declined to vacate a supplemental attorney fees award, deny further distributions or disgorge past payments.
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December 18, 2024
Amended Complaint Allowed In Disney Wage Suit After $233M Settlement Reached
SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California judge on Dec 18 permitted an amended complaint to be filed in a lawsuit accusing a theme park operator and the company running its restaurants of wage violations in light of a $233 million proposed settlement that would resolve all claims related to allegedly underpaid service charges under the Anaheim, Calif., Living Wage Ordinance (LWO).
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December 17, 2024
Expert In Wages Case Cannot Testify On Legality Of Company’s Actions, Judge Says
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — An expert retained by a landscaping company facing allegations that it failed to properly pay its workers cannot testify, a Kansas federal judge ruled, because his conclusions are entirely improper legal conclusions, which are inadmissible under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.
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December 16, 2024
Patients, Employees Settle Data Breach Suit Against Dental Chain For $2.7 Million
DETROIT — A Michigan federal judge granted final approval to a $2.7 million agreement that settles negligence and implied contract claims brought by the employees and patients of a multistate dental chain related to a February 2023 data breach that exposed the personally identifiable information (PII) of almost 2 million people.
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December 16, 2024
United Tells 5th Circuit Class Incorrectly Certified In Vaccine Mandate Suit
NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Texas erred in partially granting a motion for class certification filed by United Airlines Inc. employees in a case over the company’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate as Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23’s commonality, predominance or superiority requirements were not satisfied, United Airlines argues in an appellant/cross-appellee brief filed in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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December 16, 2024
9th Circuit Vacates Sending Wage Class Suit Arbitrability To Arbitrator
PASADENA, Calif. — A collective bargaining agreement’s (CBA) arbitration provision requires a court, not an arbitrator, to determine the arbitrability of wage-and-hour class claims brought under California law, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled in a Dec. 13 unpublished memorandum, vacating an order that denied the employers’ motion to compel arbitration pending a decision by an arbitrator.
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December 12, 2024
Religious Discrimination In, Disability Discrimination Out In COVID Vaccine Suit
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 and caused her dismissal, an Oregon federal judge on Dec. 11 adopted the findings and recommendation of a magistrate judge and granted the employer’s motion for judgment on the pleadings as to the employee’s disability discrimination claim but denied the motion as to the employee’s religious discrimination claim.
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December 12, 2024
Judge: Assignee Lacks Standing To Recover Emotional Distress Damages From Insurer
CHICAGO — A California federal judge held that an assignee cannot establish standing under California Insurance Code Section 11580(b)(2) to recover her emotional distress damages from an insurer as judgment creditor of her former employer, granting the insurer’s motion to dismiss her lawsuit arising from an underlying discrimination judgment in her favor but allowing the assignee leave to amend one of her claims.
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December 12, 2024
Federal Judge: Multiple Tenure Protections For NLRB Judges Are Unconstitutional
WASHINGTON, D.C. — National Labor Relations Board administrative law judges (ALJs) are “‘officers of the United States’” and must not be protected from presidential removal via multiple levels of protection, a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled in a case brought by a Massachusetts acute-care hospital accused by the union representing its nurses of violating various provisions of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).