7th Circ. Judge Hints Precedent Dooms Worker's Vax Fight

By Anne Cullen

A Seventh Circuit judge appeared disinclined Tuesday to restart a religious discrimination suit brought by a hospital pharmacy technician who was fired for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine, emphasizing that the same employer's recent win in a similar appeal is "binding authority."

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DOL Cancels Proposal To Nix Wage-Hour Guidance

By Max Kutner

The U.S. Department of Labor on Tuesday said it is withdrawing a proposal to remove interpretive rules and policy statements regarding the Fair Labor Standards Act that had not gone through notice-and-comment rulemaking.

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Racial Slur Bias Suit Revived By Calif. Justices Heads To Jury

By Bonnie Eslinger

A Black San Francisco prosecutor's office worker was left debilitated when the city failed to take appropriate action after a co-worker called her a racial slur, her lawyer told a jury Tuesday, kicking off trial in a decade-long race bias suit that set precedent at the California Supreme Court.

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Calif. Urged To Probe Emotional Intelligence Tool For Job Bias

By Dorothy Atkins

The American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department, asking the agency to investigate Criteria Corp.'s product for screening job applicants by so-called "emotional intelligence," which the ACLU claims raises "serious concerns" about whether the product encourages employers to illegally discriminate.

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Texas Justices Leery Of Banning AI Deposition Transcripts

By Spencer Brewer

Texas Supreme Court justices seemed hesitant to bar attorneys outright from using artificial intelligence voice transcription software during depositions, pointing out Tuesday that multiple safeguards exist to ensure accuracy.

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EEOC Homes In On Causation In HR Group's 10th Circ. Appeal

By Grace Elletson

Workers don't have to show discrimination was the primary reason for a firing or other adverse action to win bias suits, the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission told the Tenth Circuit, seeking permission to weigh in on a human resources group's challenge to an $11.5 million loss.

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Tacoma Must Put Workers' Initiative To Voters, Panel Rules

By Ben Adlin

City leaders in Tacoma, Washington, have a duty to put a so-called Workers' Bill of Rights initiative to voters, a state appellate panel said Tuesday, holding in a published opinion that the city council failed to follow a charter provision requiring the council to "submit the proposal to the people."

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Pharma Sales Rep. Says Taking Cancer Leave Got Him Fired

By David Aaro

A former sales representative has filed a disability bias suit against a pharmaceutical company in Georgia federal court, claiming he was unlawfully fired after a kidney cancer diagnosis made him take leave and delayed a product launch.

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Texas Senior Care Facility Ends DOJ Military Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

A Texas memory care facility agreed to settle a lawsuit alleging it fired an employee after trying to demote her for taking military leave, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

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Calif. Panel OKs Wells Fargo's Win In Sex Harassment Case

By Y. Peter Kang

A California appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a suit accusing a Wells Fargo supervisor of sexually harassing a coworker on a business trip, saying employers are not strictly liable under the Fair Employment and Housing Act for sexual harassment by a supervisor who lacks supervisory authority over the plaintiff.

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Novolex Accused Of Firing Worker Over Medical Pot Use

By Jonathan Capriel

Specialty packaging manufacturer Novolex was hit with a gender discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuit by a man who claims his supervisor harassed him for his long hair, calling him a girl, and later fired him for marijuana use despite his having a medical cannabis permit.

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Omni Evicted Foreign Workers After Pay Gripes, Suit Says

By Kelcey Caulder

Three Costa Rican former workers at a hotel in Atlanta have sued Omni Hotels in federal court, accusing the company of violating federal wage law and retaliating against workers who complained about pay by booting them from employer-sponsored housing.

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Brief

Ga. Delivery Co. Will Pay $27.5K To Resolve OT Suit

By Kelcey Caulder

An Atlanta-area FedEx delivery contractor asked a Georgia federal judge to approve a $27,500 settlement with a former delivery driver who accused the company of paying him a flat wage and withholding overtime pay in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

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Brief

Colo. Hospital Employee Asks For Class Cert. In OT Suit

By Zach Dupont

An employee of a Colorado hospital is seeking class certification in her proposed collective action accusing the hospital of shorting employees' pay by deducting 30-minute meal breaks from paychecks despite allegedly requiring employees to work through the breaks. 

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Higher-Ed Groups Say DHS Upended Student Internship Rules

By Tom Lotshaw

Higher-education organizations have accused the Trump administration of abruptly and unlawfully imposing new restrictions on experiential learning opportunities for international students, and couching its regulatory shift as "reminders" that threatened schools and officials with sanctions and prosecutions for noncompliance.

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Conn. Insurer Settles Agent's Free Speech Retaliation Claim

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut insurance agent who alleges he was fired for raising red flags about practices he believed violated state licensing laws has agreed to settle a lawsuit he brought against his former employer, state court records show.

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Holtec Fired CFO For Flagging False Statements, Jury Told

By George Woolston

Eight New Jersey jurors were told Tuesday that nuclear equipment and services company Holtec International broke the law when it fired its chief financial officer in 2022 after he raised objections over a document drafted by the company's chief executive meant for a potential investor.

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Understanding Risks Of Employees' AI-Drafted Complaints

As employees increasingly use generative artificial intelligence to draft complaints about workplace misconduct, investigators must adapt their practices so that the process remains fair, thorough and grounded in fact, says Rebecca Foxwell at Bracewell.

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Omni Bridgeway Raises $1B For New Litigation Funding

By Ryan Boysen

Litigation funder Omni Bridgeway has raised a new $1 billion fund from mostly repeat investors, with plans to deploy the money broadly across countries and case types while avoiding debt leverage.

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Alito Explains Recusal But Says It Shouldn't Become Practice

By Katie Buehler

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said this week he "reluctantly" recused himself from a dispute that could decide whether state and local government can sue Big Oil in state courts for damages related to greenhouse gas emissions, while suggesting the high court's members shouldn't make a practice of explaining their reasons for stepping away from cases.

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Justices' Docs Should Belong To Public, Gov't Watchdogs Say

By Jack Karp

Nearly two dozen government accountability groups are calling for Congress to enact a law that would make U.S. Supreme Court justices' papers government property that would someday be available to the public.

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ABA Accreditor Leader Remembered For Passion And Intellect

By Emma Cueto

After her sudden death while leading the American Bar Association council that handles law school accreditation, Melissa Hart is being remembered as a passionate and fiercely intelligent jurist, mentor and leader who will be missed as the council navigates numerous challenges to its accreditor status.

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