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

Mealey's Employment

July 21, 2025
Fired Motel Worker Awarded $3.6M After Trial For Harassment, Retaliation Claims

ANNISTON, Ala. — A U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama jury awarded more than $3.6 million to a fired motel employee in compensatory and punitive damages for federal and state claims of retaliation, private intrusion and intentional infliction of emotional distress stemming from allegations of racial and sexual harassment at the hands of the company’s CEO.
July 18, 2025
Government Seeks Stay Of, Appeals Ruling For Removed FTC Commissioner

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald J. Trump and other federal officials on July 17 filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia a notice of appeal and a motion to stay pending appeal a summary judgment ruling issued the same day for one of two Federal Trade Commission commissioners purportedly removed from the FTC without cause in March.
July 18, 2025
6th Circuit Rules Against Top Hat Plan Participants In Preemption, Remedies Row

CINCINNATI — Ruling that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act expressly preempts state law claims and that lost monetary benefits are not equitable relief, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 17 affirmed judgment for the administrator of so-called “top hat” deferred compensation and retirement plans.
July 18, 2025
‘Blanket’ Protective Order In Farmworkers’ Suit Found Restrictive By 9th Circuit

SEATTLE — A protective order issued by a trial court in a forced labor class action is overly restrictive, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, because of the “presumptively public” nature of discovery and the lack of good cause to prevent the plaintiffs’ counsel from using the discovered items in similar worker advocacy matters.
July 18, 2025
Majority Upholds Dismissal Of Claims In Police Chief’s Firing Over Racist Texts

SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals majority agreed with a federal judge in California’s ruling that the forwarding of racist text messages that led to the firing of a city police chief were not “a matter of legitimate public concern” in denying a petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc for claims of retaliation and conspiracy pursuant the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
July 17, 2025
Judge OKs Employee Data Pact, Cuts Attorney Fees Request Of 1.6 Times Recovery

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A federal judge in California granted final approval of a class settlement in an employee data case but slashed the requested attorney fee award from 1.6 times the gross settlement amount to 25% of the net settlement fund, opining that while the class members’ recovery was “not inhibit[ed]” by the request and the agreement containing a clear-sailing provision was “non-collusive,” such a request could not be considered “reasonable.”
July 16, 2025
Miss. Company To Pay $25K For Violating INA Through Recruitment, Referral Efforts

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Mississippi company that provides services that help H-2A workers find temporary or seasonal U.S. agricultural jobs will pay $25,000 in civil penalties for violating the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) pursuant to a settlement filed July 15 with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) after an investigation determined that the company was undermining U.S. job applicants through recruitment and referral efforts that “unlawfully favored” the hiring of foreign workers.
July 15, 2025
11th Circuit Majority Reverses Transgender Teacher’s Florida Pronoun Law Win

ATLANTA — Bucking a Florida federal judge’s “thunderous ‘no’” in response to whether the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution permits the state to unlimitedly dictate how public school teachers refer to themselves in communication with students, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority found that a transgender woman teacher “hasn’t shown a substantial likelihood that” a state law that prohibits her from using female gendered pronouns in exchanges with students “infringes her free-speech rights” in vacating and remanding the judge’s preliminary injunction ruling.
July 15, 2025
5th Circuit Reverses NLRB Ruling That Apple Violated NLRA In Alleged Anti-Union Acts

NEW ORLEANS — Citing company policies and lack of “substantial evidence,” the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a decision and order in which the National Labor Relations Board found that Apple employees at a store in New York violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) when managers removed pro-union flyers from a company break room and spoke to an employee about unionization efforts.
July 14, 2025
Split U.S. High Court Stays May Injunction That Halted Education Department Cuts

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided U.S. Supreme Court on July 14 stayed a May 22 preliminary injunction entered by a federal judge in Massachusetts that halted a reduction in force (RIF) that is part of the alleged dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education.
July 14, 2025
Government, Reinstated CPSC Members File High Court Briefs In Stay Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a July 11 opposition to the federal government’s U.S. Supreme Court application to stay a trial court’s ruling reinstating three members of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) who were terminated without cause in May by President Donald J. Trump, the CPSC members argue that the government can’t establish any stay factors, while the government argues in a July 14 reply that it is likely to show that Trump is empowered by the U.S. Constitution to carry out such terminations and that the courts lack the power to restore the members.
July 14, 2025
8th Circuit Upholds Rulings For EEOC, Deaf Applicant In Disability Bias Case

OMAHA, Neb. — A federal judge in Nebraska did not err when he issued a series of rulings in favor of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a deaf job applicant in a case in which Werner Enterprises Inc. and a subsidiary, Drivers Management LLC, (together, Werner) were found by a jury to have violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for failure to hire and accommodate the applicant, the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled.
July 14, 2025
Former NOAA Employees Allege Mass Terminations Violated Privacy Act

GREENBELT, Md. — Former employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration filed a class action suit against a number of governmental entities involved in the mass terminations of NOAA employees under directives issued by the Trump administration, alleging that the entities violated the Privacy Act by relying on incomplete and inaccurate employment records as support for the terminations.
July 11, 2025
7th Circuit Certifies COVID Screening Compensability Question To State High Court

CHICAGO — In a lawsuit by former employees alleging that pre-shift COVID-19 screenings were compensable under the Illinois Minimum Wage Law (IMWL) and other statutes, a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel certified to the Illinois Supreme Court the question of whether the IMWL incorporates the federal Portal-to-Portal Act (PPA) amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) so as to exclude certain pre-shift activities from compensable time.
July 11, 2025
Split 11th Circuit OKs Vacatur Of Arbitration Award Arising From Severance Row

ATLANTA — In an 11-page per curiam ruling described in a 65-page dissent as doing “the unthinkable,” the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 10 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 appellant never raised.
July 11, 2025
$4.5M WARN Act Class Settlement OK’d Pending News Group Asset Liquidation

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted final approval of a $4.5 million settlement in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act class case brought by workers against JAF Communications Inc. after they were terminated by a now-defunct news organization, The Messenger, but left pending expenses, costs, a service award to the class representative and class counsel fees until the final accounting of proceedings in which JAF’s assets are liquidated.
July 11, 2025
Calif. Supreme Court: City Treasurer Can’t Invoke Whistleblower Protections

SAN FRANCISCO — An elected city treasurer is not an employee entitled to California Labor Code whistleblower protections, the California Supreme Court ruled, affirming an appellate court’s judgment for Inglewood, Calif., and other city officials.
July 10, 2025
2nd Circuit Lets ERISA Determination Stand In Deferred Compensation Row

NEW YORK — In a July 9 summary order, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed interlocutory cross-appeals on the grounds that it lacked jurisdiction in the dispute that involves arbitration and drew four briefs from amici curiae; the appellate court therefore let stand a determination that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act governs the compensation incentive and equity incentive plans at issue in a suit over a Morgan Stanley deferred compensation program.
July 10, 2025
Panel Vacates Bank Worker’s Vaccine Exemption Denial, Affirms Discovery Sanctions

NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel determined, in partially vacating and remanding a federal judge’s order, “that disputed issues of material fact preclude summary judgment” on one of two New York bank employees’ claims that her religious beliefs exempted her from receiving a COVID-19 vaccine after the employees were terminated for not getting vaccinated to return to work after the pandemic but agreed that the judge was correct in imposing discovery sanctions related to the employees’ lawsuit alleging religious freedom, First Amendment and Title VII violations.
July 09, 2025
Removed FLRA Chair Seeks Rehearing After D.C. Circuit Stays Reinstatement

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) chair who was removed by President Donald J. Trump without explanation filed a petition for rehearing en banc after the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals stayed pending appeal a trial court ruling ordering de facto reinstatement.
July 09, 2025
Employee Adds Punitive Damages Claim In COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal Case

DENVER — After a panel of the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the judgment of a Colorado federal court dismissing an employee’s claim of religious discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act stemming from the employee’s refusal to be vaccinated for COVID-19 as mandated by a state health board emergency rule, the employee filed a third amended complaint, adding a claim for punitive damages.
July 09, 2025
Reinstated CPSC Members Oppose Government’s High Court Stay Application

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three members of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) who were terminated without cause in May by President Donald J. Trump and ordered reinstated by a federal judge in Maryland filed an opposition in the U.S. Supreme Court to the government’s application to stay the summary judgment ruling in the members’ favor pending appeal.
July 08, 2025
Split U.S. High Court Stays Pending Appeal Injunction In Federal Worker RIF Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided U.S. Supreme Court on July 8 stayed pending disposition of an appeal and of a petition for a writ of certiorari (if one is filed) a trial court’s preliminary injunction issued in a case challenging an executive order (EO) and memorandum implementing the EO that resulted in widespread layoffs of federal workers; the unsigned majority opinion stated that the federal “[g]overnment is likely to succeed on its argument that the Executive Order and Memorandum are lawful.”
July 08, 2025
Preshift COVID-19 Screening Compensation Case Stayed Pending 7th Circuit Ruling

CHICAGO — In a former employee’s purported class action against his employer seeking to recover unpaid wages for mandatory preshift COVID-19 screening under the Illinois Minimum Wage Law (IMWL), the Illinois Wage and Payment Collection Act (IWPCA) and quantum meruit, which alleged that the time spent screening and awaiting screening was controlled by the employer and necessary to his job and, thus, compensable, an Illinois federal judge on July 7 stayed the case pending the result of a similar case in the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
July 07, 2025
Bill Of Costs Gripe Follows Ruling On NYU Doctor’s Gender, Pay, Retaliation Claims

NEW YORK — A group of New York University (NYU) medical entities and employees are seeking over $10,300 in a bill of costs and say a staff physician is not entitled to more than $23,000 in a bill of costs she filed with the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals regarding a ruling that vacated and remanded a New York district court’s grant of a judgment that denied claims of retaliation against NYU and several staff members after the physician complained about gender discrimination and pay disparities before she was terminated.