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Mealey's Employment

  • April 23, 2026

    9th Circuit: Jack In The Box Workers Deserve Shortened Meal Break Pay After All

    PORTLAND, Ore. — In an amended opinion filed in a years-long wage-and-hour suit, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel revived both individual and class claims brought by Jack in the Box workers alleging that they are entitled to pay for shortened meal breaks, reversing and remanding an earlier ruling in favor of their employer.

  • April 23, 2026

    4th Circuit Affirms That Merrill Lynch Bonus Plan Falls Outside ERISA

    RICHMOND, Va. — As urged by the appellees and a handful of amici curiae, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed that an incentive compensation program “qualifies as a ‘bonus plan exempt from’” the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, affirming summary judgment against a former financial adviser who filed the putative class action; one panel member wrote a concurring opinion to emphasize “that any other conclusion would generate an avalanche of deleterious consequences.”

  • April 22, 2026

    Federal Respondents: New NLRB Members Could Moot Macy’s Union Lockout Case Petition

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In light of the confirmation of two new National Labor Relations Board members that could lead to reanalysis of a decision holding that Macy’s Inc. violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) when it locked workers out without providing the conditions necessary to avoid a lockout and ordered payment of broad “consequential damages,” the federal government is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to grant a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by Macy’s, vacate the split appellate court decision that led to the petition and remand the case for further consideration.

  • April 21, 2026

    Union’s Petition Over Intervention Denial In NLRB Constitutionality Case Denied

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied on April 20 a petition for writ of certiorari filed by the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) asking the court to review a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel’s decision denying the union’s motion for intervention in a trio of cases involving the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board.

  • April 21, 2026

    High Court Rejects Employment Case Petitions Concerning Union Duties, Due Process

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 20 denied two petitions for a writ  of certiorari, one filed by a group of fired airline pilots against their union seeking review of union duties pursuant to the Railway Labor Act (RLA) and another filed by a terminated surgical technician who sought review of due process guarantees under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

  • April 20, 2026

    U.S. Supreme Court Denies Petition In Disabled Veteran’s Discrimination Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Denying a petition for a writ of certiorari on April 20 that was filed by a disabled veteran disputing the denial of the renewal of his employment contract with Aviation Training Consulting LLC (ATC), the U.S. Supreme Court will not review whether independent review or shared decision-making protects an employer from “‘cat’s paw’ liability” pursuant to Staub v. Proctor Hospital, when the action was caused by a “biased subordinate’s act.”

  • April 20, 2026

    High Court Won’t Review Fired Sales Rep’s Title VII Customer Harassment Question

    WASHINGTON, D.C. —  The U.S. Supreme Court denied on April 20 a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a fired employee of a cleaning products manufacturer asking the court to determine whether the negligence standard that applies to claims of Title VII workplace harassment by a co-worker also applies to harassment by a customer.

  • April 20, 2026

    Divided 9th Circuit Denies Rehearing In Religious Bias COVID Test Refusal Case

    SAN FRANCISCO — In a split vote with two dissents, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition to rehear en banc a case in which a panel majority affirmed the dismissal of a fired Oregon medical center administrative employee’s lawsuit challenging her termination for refusing to submit to weekly antigen testing for COVID-19 as an accommodation of a religious exemption from a company vaccine mandate, despite both parties calling for another look at the case.

  • April 17, 2026

    6th Circuit Won’t Review NLRB Decisions In 2 Cases Amid 8-Year Picket Line Battle

    CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied petitions for review of decisions issued by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) finding that a road construction company engaged in unfair labor practices while bargaining with a Michigan-based engineering union and ordering the company to bargain in good faith with the union in two cases stemming from nearly eight years of “battling on the picket lines and in the courts,” to no avail.

  • April 17, 2026

    High Court Dismisses Petition Concerning Arbitration Award Over Severance

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In accordance with an agreement reached by the parties, the U.S. Supreme Court on April 16 dismissed a certiorari petition that it had requested a response to; the 2-1 appeals court panel ruling affirmed vacatur of an award that resulted from pro se arbitration over severance pay and concerned an Employee Retirement Income Security Act discrimination claim that the majority concluded the claimant never raised, and the petitioner had argued that the decision “encourages a cascade of litigation over the enforceability of arbitral awards.”

  • April 17, 2026

    6th Circuit Nixes Bid To Maintain Disability, Health Benefits Pending Appeal

    CINCINNATI — Denying a request to require maintenance of disability and health insurance benefits via an injunction pending appeal, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals concluded that the appellant has not shown “any irreparable harm that he will suffer without an injunction.”

  • April 16, 2026

    Judge Affirms Arbitrator’s Award Of LTD Benefits In Dispute Involving Union

    JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — Enforcing an arbitrator’s award of long-term disability (LTD) benefits that followed the plan administrator’s denial of the claim, a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled that the dispute fell within the bounds of an arbitration clause in a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the claimant’s employer and a union and that “the arbitrator properly focused his merits analysis to the Agreement’s terms.”

  • April 15, 2026

    Preliminary Injunction Granted In Trade Secrets Case Between 2 AI Data Platforms

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California granted a preliminary injunction in a trade secrets misappropriation case involving two companies that provide data labeling and other services to artificial intelligence (AI) companies and enjoined the defendants from using, disclosing or destroying any confidential information and data allegedly obtained from the plaintiff when it interviewed and eventually hired one of its employees.

  • April 14, 2026

    IBM To Pay $17M In FCA Fraud Initiative Settlement To Resolve Claims Of DEI Bias

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) will pay more than $17 million to resolve allegations that it violated the federal False Claims Act (FCA) by failing “to comply with anti-discrimination requirements” in its federal contracts, which “the United States contends discriminated against employees during employment and applicants for employment because of race, color, national origin, or sex and failed to treat employees during employment without regard to race, color, national origin, or sex.”

  • April 14, 2026

    Washington, Detainees Oppose High Court Petition In Wage Class Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The state of Washington and immigration detainees separately oppose a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by the operator of immigration detention centers across the United States which is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause permits a state to find detainees participating in a voluntary work program as employees who are owed state-mandated minimum wages rather than the $1 per day wage most were making.

  • April 13, 2026

    En Banc 4th Circuit Vacates Injunction In Suit Over DOGE Access To SSA Records

    RICHMOND, Va. — A divided en banc Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 10 vacated a trial court’s April 2025 preliminary injunction — an injunction that was stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2025 — in a suit by a union and two groups representing a combined 7 million Americans who challenged access to Social Security Administration (SSA) records provided to individuals working for U.S. DOGE Service and U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization(together, DOGE).

  • April 13, 2026

    United Pilot Appeals Dismissal Of Claims In Vaccine Mandate Dispute To 7th Circuit

    CHICAGO — A United Airlines pilot filed a notice of appeal to the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals over dismissal of a federal suit against the airline and Air Line Pilots Association International (ALPA) alleging failure-to-accommodate and disparate treatment claims that arose from the airline’s COVID-19 vaccination policy.

  • April 10, 2026

    Fired Worker Who Refused Vaccine Did Not Show Religious Conflict With Vaccination

    PORTLAND, Ore. — Adopting a federal magistrate judge’s findings and recommendation, an Oregon federal judge granted an employer’s motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit by a former employee who alleged that the company failed to make a good faith effort to accommodate her religious beliefs when it terminated her for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine pursuant to company policy during the pandemic.

  • April 10, 2026

    Sanctions Imposed For Canceled Deposition But Not For Fake Case Citation

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — Because the plaintiff’s attorney in an employment discrimination case promptly corrected an “erroneously submitted” opposition brief and assured the court that her firm has taken action to prevent such filings in the future, a federal magistrate judge in California denied the employer’s motion to sanction the attorney for filing a brief containing what it claimed was a hallucinated case citation generated by artificial intelligence; the magistrate judge did, however, sanction the plaintiff and attorney for the last-minute cancellation of a scheduled deposition.

  • April 10, 2026

    AI Hiring Startup Hit With Data Breach Class Suit After Supply Chain Attack

    SAN FRANCISCO — A New York man filed a class complaint in a federal court in California seeking monetary and equitable relief for a putative class of former contract workers and customers of a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence hiring startup whose data was allegedly stolen due to a supply chain attack.

  • April 09, 2026

    3 Universities Dismissed In Student Athletes’ Class, Collective Wage Suit

    PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania dismissed three Division I schools — Sacred Heart University, University of Notre Dame du Lac and Duke University — from a putative class and collective action lawsuit by former student athletes who allege they are employees who are owed wages by their respective schools and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

  • April 09, 2026

    9th Circuit Reverses Arbitration Denial In Fired Worker’s Discrimination Case

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed and remanded a California federal judge’s denial of a motion to compel arbitration between a fired medical software salesperson and her employer, holding that a clause within an arbitration agreement that gives an arbitrator the power to resolve the validity of the agreement “clearly and unmistakably reserves” that authority to the arbitrator and “should be respected” even if a severability clause exists.

  • April 08, 2026

    Federal Jury Awards Trucker $5M In Employment Discrimination Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — A jury in a California federal court determined in a verdict issued after a seven-day trial that an African-American driver for a construction products supplier who sued his employer for racial and disability discrimination and the creation of a hostile work environment pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) proved his claims and is entitled to $5 million in noneconomic damages.

  • April 08, 2026

    7th Circuit: BIPA Amendment Applies To Cases Pending At Time Of Enactment

    CHICAGO — Ruling on three consolidated appeals regarding whether an amendment to the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) limiting recovery to a single violation applies retroactively to cases pending when the amendment was enacted, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed and remanded lower court rulings holding that the amendment applies prospectively only, finding that the amendment applies retroactively to the cases pending at the time it was enacted because it “impacts only the statutory damages available to plaintiffs.”

  • April 07, 2026

    DOGE, Others Seek 2nd Supreme Court Review Of Discovery Orders In FOIA Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. DOGE Service (referred to as both DOGE and USDS), the DOGE acting administrator, Elon Musk and others in the federal government filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court asking the justices to take up for the second time questions concerning discovery in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case regarding DOGE’s authority and role in mass firings in the federal government.