Mealey's Employment
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October 15, 2025
Airline Workers Fired For Refusing COVID Shot Petition High Court Over Dismissal
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A group of former United Airlines employees who filed suit after they were terminated or placed on unpaid leave for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine despite seeking religious exemptions are asking the U.S. Supreme Court in a petition for writ of certiorari whether a dismissed Illinois Whistleblower Act claim should have been permitted to proceed in the face of a potential violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDA) and whether their complaint should have been dismissed for “failure to exhaust administrative remedies” when “they have either obtained right-to-sue letters or are in the process of obtaining them.”
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October 15, 2025
Mexican Bank Ex-Employees Must Pay $186K For Breach Of Arbitration Agreements
NEW YORK — A New York federal judge granted two petitions to confirm International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) awards against two former employees of two financial entities in Mexico City for filing civil litigation against their former employers in breach of mandatory arbitration clauses, thereby requiring the employees to separately pay more than $179,000 and $7,000 in attorney fees and arbitration costs.
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October 15, 2025
High Court Denies Petition In Suit Challenging Unions’ Antidevelopment ‘Playbook’
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 14 denied a petition for writ of certiorari that several hotel operators filed asking whether the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred in dismissing most of their claims against a group of unions and union leaders that alleged violations of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and other laws by reportedly following a “playbook” targeting non-union projects by using environmental standards, land-use regulations and other arguments to oppose and halt plans to redevelop a San Diego resort property.
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October 15, 2025
Disney’s And Sodexo’s Wage Settlements Of Nearly $235M Granted Final Approval
SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California judge in separate orders granted final approval of settlements totaling $234,750,000 by The Walt Disney Co. and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts US Inc. (Disney) and Sodexo Inc. and SodexoMagic LLC (together, Sodexo) in a wage class lawsuit by workers.
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October 14, 2025
U.S. High Court: U.S. May Participate In Arguments In Forced Labor Class Suit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 14 granted a motion by the U.S. solicitor general for leave to participate in oral argument as amicus curiae and for divided argument in an appeal by the operator of a private immigration detention facility in Colorado that seeks a ruling on whether interlocutory orders holding that a federal contractor does not meet the requirements under Yearsley v. W.A. Ross Construction Co. for a defense to liability for damages are immediately appealable under the collateral order doctrine.
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October 14, 2025
7th Circuit Rejects ‘Safe Harbor’ Interpretation In Withdrawal Liability Case
CHICAGO — Affirming a ruling against an employer in a withdrawal liability dispute involving the “payment schedule” and asset sale “safe harbor” provisions of the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act (MPPAA), the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in part that Congress “did not choose to prevent ‘double recovery’ over other policy outcomes.”
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October 14, 2025
9th Circuit Panel Reverses, Remands Circle K Workers’ Age Discrimination Claims
SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel opined that three employee of a national convenience store and gas station chain who are all over 50 years old may have been purposely prevented from applying for promotions because of their ages in reversing and remanding a federal California judge’s summary judgment order.
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October 14, 2025
Same Disposition In Firm’s CFAA Suit Against Ex-Workers After 3rd Circuit Rehearing
PHILADELPHIA — After granting a petition for rehearing of a decision affirming that two former employees of a national debt-collection firm did not commit computer fraud, steal trade secrets or violate other state and federal laws through the creation and sharing of a spreadsheet containing passwords and protected login information, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated the original opinion and issued an amended opinion but did not ultimately change the disposition of the appeal.
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October 14, 2025
Indiana Appeals Court Affirms Ruling Against Former Trooper In LTD Benefits Case
INDIANAPOLIS — Affirming a ruling against the appellant, an Indiana appeals panelagreed with the Indiana State Police (ISP) that a former state trooper lost his entitlement to long-term disability (LTD) benefits upon assuming full-time elected office.
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October 13, 2025
Federal Government Tells U.S. High Court Trump Controls All Executive Officers
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. president controls all executive officers and has “the authority to remove at will the presidentially appointed heads of multimember administrative agencies, such as the FTC [Federal Trade Commission],” the federal government tells the U.S. Supreme Court in an Oct. 10 petitioner brief filed in a case over the president’s March 2025 purported removal of two FTC commissioners.
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October 10, 2025
Rehearing On 7th Circuit Majority Ruling In Transgender Student Name Case Denied
CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals will not revisit a panel majority’s decision to reverse and remand an Indiana federal judge’s order that granted summary judgment to a school district on a religious accommodation claim brought by a teacher who objected to a policy requiring the use of transgender students’ first names.
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October 09, 2025
Reconsideration Denied After 2nd Circuit’s Arbitration Ruling In NFL Coach’s Suit
NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc filed by the National Football League (NFL) and three teams after a panel ruled in August that rulings denying arbitration of a coach’s race bias claims against the Denver Broncos and NFL based on his employment agreement with the New England Patriots and denying reconsideration were proper.
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October 09, 2025
Health Care Workers Axed For COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal Fail In 6th Circuit Appeal
SAN FRANCISCO — In ruling on one of “a spate of appeals related to vaccination orders spawned by COVID-19,” a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel opined that dozens of at-will, nonprofit health care workers who sued the Washington governor and their employer after they were fired for refusing the state-mandated shot did not succeed in stating “wide-ranging sources of purported rights” to support federal claims and did not provide enough evidence to reverse the lower court’s ruling dismissing and remanding state law claims.
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October 09, 2025
Fired Worker’s Discrimination, Retaliation Suit Dismissal Reversed By 6th Circuit
CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that a fired Ford manufacturing engineer brought specific enough examples of racial, national origin and religious discrimination and met the necessary burden to plausibly allege that he was retaliated against pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in reversing and remanding the dismissal of claims he filed over his termination for “poor performance.”
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October 08, 2025
Judge Dismisses Suit By ‘Public Face’ Of Vape Brand Who Claimed Wrongful Removal
LAS VEGAS — A Nevada federal judge dismissed for lack of jurisdiction a complaint by the former CEO of a brand used to sell disposable vapes and other products in which he accused two former colleagues and his former companies of violating his right of publicity and deceptive trade practices after finding that the plaintiff failed to plead that personal jurisdiction exists over the defendants in Nevada based on their operation of websites and social media accessible from that state.
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October 07, 2025
Petitions Denied By High Court In Harassment, Retaliation And Baseball Pay Cases
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 denied multiple employment-related petitions, including ones posing questions on harassment, arbitration, disability bias, retaliation and pay for minor-league baseball players.
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October 07, 2025
Judicial Watch Founder To Seek Rehearing After Attorney Fees Petition Denied
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ousted Judicial Watch Founder Larry Klayman, who has been engaged in litigation with the public interest group for more than 19 years, filed a notice in the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 that he intends to seek rehearing after his petition challenging an attorney fees award was denied that day.
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October 07, 2025
6th Circuit Says Truckers Proved Racial Bias, Reverses Dismissal Of Hostility Claim
CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that two African-American employees of a Tennessee trucking company who alleged that they were treated unfairly, called names and berated by supervisors because of their race provided evidence of “severe or pervasive” racial harassment and that the company failed to provide “an affirmative defense” to liability in reversing and remanding a federal judge’s opinion that granted summary judgment to the company on a claim that it created a hostile work environment pursuant to federal and state laws.
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October 06, 2025
U.S. Supreme Court Won’t Decide DOL Interaction, Travel Pay Questions
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 denied a home health agency’s petition seeking review of two questions concerning the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Portal-to-Portal Act (PPA) and a finding of a willful violation that was opposed by the secretary of Labor.
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October 06, 2025
U.S. High Court Won’t Consider Question On NLRB Impasse Decision
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 denied a distillery’s petition for a writ of certiorari that asked the justices to decide the scope of a court’s review of a decision by the National Labor Relations Board and to decide when an employer is excused from bargaining to impasse after a split District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the NLRB’s determination that the employer committed six unfair labor practices when attempting to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement.
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October 06, 2025
Groups Allege H-1B Visa Proclamation Is Unlawful, Will Harm Multiple Industries
SAN FRANCISCO — A Sept. 18 proclamation issued by President Donald J. Trump that conditions H-1B visas on employers making a $100,000 payment to the federal government is “unlawful” and transforms the visa “program into one where employers must either ‘pay to play’ or seek a ‘national interest’ exemption, which will be doled out at the discretion of the Secretary of Homeland Security,” Global Nurse Force and other groups allege in a complaint filed Oct. 3 in a federal court in California.
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October 06, 2025
Union Sues U.S. Education Department Over Shutdown Of Out-Of-Office Messages
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Education replaced workers’ federal government shutdown out-of-office messages “with partisan language that blames ‘Democrat Senators’ for the shutdown,” forcing those workers “to involuntarily parrot the Trump Administration’s talking points with emails sent out in their names,” alleges an Oct. 3 complaint filed by American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) in a federal court in the District of Columbia.
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October 06, 2025
Employer Once Again Petitions High Court In Suit Over NLRB Complaint Withdrawal
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Unsatisfied with a divided Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel’s ruling on remand, a wholesale grocery company once again petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for review of a decision by the National Labor Relations Board that an acting general counsel may withdraw an unfair labor practice complaint that his predecessor issued against a union.
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October 03, 2025
Requests To Hold Collective Bargaining EO Cases In Abeyance Denied, Withdrawn
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals addressed two motions to hold in abeyance two cases concerning a March executive order (EO) that unions say eliminates collective bargaining for approximately two-thirds of the federal workforce; the motion in the case brought by National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) was denied, and the motion in the case by the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) was deemed withdrawn.
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October 03, 2025
5th Circuit Denies Rehearing After Reissued Opinion In Amazon, NLRB Dispute
NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel in an Oct. 2 per curiam opinion denied rehearing or rehearing en banc sought by Amazon.com Services LLC after a split panel dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction the appeal challenging the “constructive denial” of Amazon’s injunctive relief motion concerning two National Labor Relations Board proceedings to which it alleged that it was being subjected to in violation of the U.S. Constitution.