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Employment
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March 28, 2024
Fired Alston & Bird Aide Fights Arbitration Of Vax Claims
An Alston & Bird LLP staffer fired after refusing to get vaccinated for COVID-19 told a Georgia federal court that it should refuse to force her discrimination suit into arbitration, since her employment contract was not a matter of interstate commerce.
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March 28, 2024
Mass. Justices Say 2019 Sunday-Wage Ruling Is Retroactive
Massachusetts' highest court on Thursday affirmed a finding that a furniture retailer violated the state's wage laws by paying salespeople overtime and a Sunday premium out of their own earned commissions, keeping intact a nearly $10 million damages award.
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March 28, 2024
Ex-Paralegal's Jobless Pay Ruling Correct, Del. Justices Told
Delaware opposes a former Morris James LLP paralegal's bid for the state's Supreme Court to revive his attempt to collect a year's worth of unemployment benefits, arguing a lower court correctly upheld denial of pay after he settled whistleblower claims against the firm.
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March 27, 2024
Judge Agrees To Training For 'Overly Harsh' Workplace
The Judicial Council for the Second Circuit has declined to review the dismissal of a law clerk's complaint against a federal judge, who acknowledged the clerk's claims of their "overly harsh" management style and agreed to participate in workplace conduct counseling and training.
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March 27, 2024
Sega Workers Ratify 1st Contract In 'Landmark Moment'
Unionized Sega of America workers backed the ratification of their first contract with the video game giant, according to an announcement from the union Wednesday, saying the parties agreed to raises, benefits and other protections for workers.
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March 27, 2024
DC Circuit Upholds NLRB Firing Decision Despite Legal Shift
The D.C. Circuit upheld an NLRB ruling that a Cadillac dealer illegally fired a worker even though the board changed the applicable precedent during the appeal, saying Wednesday that the long-running case appears to shake out the same under either version of the shifting standard for worker outbursts.
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March 27, 2024
Hospital Co. Can't Quash ERISA Suit Subpoenas, Judge Says
A Buffalo, New York-area hospital network lost its bid to quash two subpoenas in a proposed Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action Wednesday, with a New York federal judge ruling that the network challenged the subpoenas to two of its advisers in the wrong court.
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March 27, 2024
HR Services Co. May Be Liable In Harassment Suit, Court Says
A Texas appellate court said Wednesday that more fact-finding is needed to determine whether a professional employer organization could be on the hook for a sexual harassment claim brought by a cafeteria worker, but found that the company is, legally, an employer.
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March 27, 2024
6th Circ. Backs Allstate In Worker's Religious Bias Appeal
The Sixth Circuit declined Wednesday to reinstate a former Allstate employee's lawsuit alleging he was fired for expressing faith-based anti-LGBTQ views, saying he failed to rebut the company's argument that he was cut loose for his lackluster performance.
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March 27, 2024
Governor Directs Pa. To Use More Project Labor Agreements
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Wednesday that he is directing state agencies to consider including project labor agreements — pre-hiring collective bargaining agreements that can cover multiple contractors and labor unions — in all major capital projects.
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March 27, 2024
Bricklayer Seeks OT Pay For Time On 'Shuttle' To Worksites
A bricklayer alleged that a California-based construction firm should have paid him and his fellow workers to ride a shuttle up to an hour each way to job sites, according to a proposed class action made public in Pennsylvania state court Wednesday.
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March 27, 2024
Yellow Corp. Pension Fund Liability To Be Decided In Ch. 11
A Delaware bankruptcy judge on Wednesday denied the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.'s bid to take a dispute with Yellow Corp. over $7.8 billion in retirement fund withdrawal liability claims to arbitration, finding the dispute would be best resolved through the trucking firm's Chapter 11 claims allowance process.
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March 27, 2024
T-Mobile Gets COVID Vax Bias Suit Narrowed
A Michigan federal judge cut down but ultimately kept alive a former T-Mobile worker's suit Wednesday alleging the company illegally denied his request for a religious exemption to its COVID-19 vaccine requirement, ruling that a jury needs to review the claim.
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March 27, 2024
Foreign Workers Sue Over Alleged Illegal Recruiting Scheme
An Atlanta-based building materials wholesaler and two recruitment and staffing agencies were hit with a proposed class action alleging they lured skilled Mexican engineers and technicians to the U.S. to fill manual labor positions under a temporary visa program for high-skilled workers.
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March 27, 2024
COVID Prompted Equity Plan Edit, Raytheon Tells Chancery
Raytheon Technologies Corp. amended employee compensation plans in early 2020 to mitigate "head-spinning unprecedented volatility" from the COVID-19 pandemic, and a shareholder's allegations that directors acted in bad faith by failing to seek stockholder approval should be dismissed, the aerospace company told Delaware's Court of Chancery on Wednesday.
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March 27, 2024
Calif. Rail Biz Attys Face DQ Bid Over Bad Faith, Info Breach
A Black engineer accusing Pacific Harbor Line of workplace racial bias has urged a California federal judge to bar Buchannan Ingersoll & Rooney LLP from representing the railroad company, citing a sanctions bid against his counsel that had "no evidentiary basis" and "improper" communication with a paralegal for the engineer's legal team.
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March 27, 2024
2nd Circ. Won't Revive Ex-NY Law Clerk's Harassment Suit
The Second Circuit Wednesday agreed with a New York federal district court's dismissal of a suit brought by a former New York law clerk accusing the state's judicial system of covering for a judge she says sexually harassed her, holding that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the appeal.
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March 27, 2024
Construction Orgs Call Prevailing Wage Rule Unconstitutional
Several construction groups said the U.S. Department of Labor is illegally trying to expand the reach of the Davis-Bacon Act with its final rule regulating prevailing wages, urging a Texas federal court to bring the rule to a screeching halt.
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March 27, 2024
Calif. High Court Gives Guideposts For What Counts As Work
The California Supreme Court's decision that a construction contractor must pay workers for the time they spent waiting in their cars to go through a security check before leaving the job site provides guideposts for determining when wages are owed in other scenarios, attorneys told Law360.
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March 27, 2024
Atlanta Firm Wins Fees In Bias Case Over 'Torrent' Of Abuse
A Georgia federal judge awarded more than $165,000 in attorney fees and more than $33,000 in lost pay to a Black woman who was awarded nearly $3.5 million at trial in November after suffering on-the-job racial and sexual discrimination, harassment and retaliation.
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March 27, 2024
Eli Lilly Age Bias Suit Over Promotions Nabs Collective Status
An age discrimination suit accusing Eli Lilly of passing over older workers for promotions in favor of millennials can move forward as a collective action, an Indiana federal judge ruled, finding thousands of workers may have been affected by the same policy.
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March 27, 2024
House Subpoenas PBGC Over $127M Teamsters Overpayment
A House committee subpoenaed the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. as part of its probe into a $127 million overpayment to Teamsters pensioners who had already died, distributed as part of a multibillion-dollar bailout of multiemployer funds Congress approved during the pandemic.
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March 27, 2024
NJ AG Says Teachers On Maternity Leave Faced Possible Bias
The New Jersey attorney general's office said Wednesday that its Division on Civil Rights preliminarily concluded that a public school district may have violated discrimination laws by preventing women on parental leave from coaching extracurricular activities.
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March 27, 2024
Atlanta Immigration Firm Accused Of Not Paying Paralegal OT
An Atlanta immigration law firm is facing a lawsuit in Georgia federal court from a paralegal who says he was misclassified as an independent contractor and denied overtime pay, despite routinely working upward of 40 hours per week.
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March 27, 2024
Meta Settles Fired Worker's COVID Vax Religious Bias Suit
Facebook parent company Meta has agreed to settle a Washington federal suit brought by a former project manager who claimed he was illegally fired after refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 because of his religious beliefs.
Expert Analysis
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SEC Fines Mean Cos. Should Review Anti-Whistleblower Docs
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s expanding focus on violations of whistleblower protection laws — as seen in recent settlements where company contracts forbade workers from reporting securities misconduct — means companies should review their employment and separation agreements for language that may discourage reporting, says Caroline Henry at Maynard Nexsen.
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Employer Takeaways From 2nd Circ. Equal Pay Ruling
The Second Circuit 's recent decision in Eisenhauer v. Culinary Institute of America reversed a long-held understanding of the Equal Pay Act, ultimately making it easier for employers to defend against equal pay claims brought under federal law, but it is not a clear escape hatch for employers, say Thelma Akpan and Katelyn McCombs at Littler.
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How Social Media Can Affect Trial Outcomes
With social media’s ability to seize upon an issue and spin it into a specifically designed narrative, it is more critical than ever that a litigation communications strategy be part of trial planning to manage the impact of legal action on a company's reputation, say Sean Murphy and Steve Wood at Courtroom Sciences.
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General Counsel Need Data Literacy To Keep Up With AI
With the rise of accessible and powerful generative artificial intelligence solutions, it is imperative for general counsel to understand the use and application of data for myriad important activities, from evaluating the e-discovery process to monitoring compliance analytics and more, says Colin Levy at Malbek.
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What Calif.'s New Arbitration Law Means For Employers
A new California law prohibits the automatic stay of trial court proceedings when the denial of a motion to compel arbitration is appealed — a major procedural shift that will force employers to litigate underlying claims while pursuing their appeals unless the court can be persuaded to order a stay, say Emma Husseman and Thomas Kaufman at Sheppard Mullin.
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Liability Exposure For Unpaid Payroll Taxes May Surprise You
The Ninth Circuit’s recent decision in Richard W. York v. U.S. offers important lessons for business owners and others who may be responsible for a company's checkbook about how someone else's failure to submit payroll taxes can result in their personal liability, says Douglas Charnas at McGlinchey Stafford.
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AI Isn't The Wild West, So Prepare Now For Bias Risks
In addition to President Joe Biden's recent historic executive order on safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence, there are existing federal and state laws prohibiting fraud, defamation and even discrimination, so companies considering using or developing AI should take steps to minimize legal and business risks, says civil rights attorney Farhana Khera.
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Navigating Discovery Of Generative AI Information
As generative artificial intelligence tools become increasingly ubiquitous, companies must make sure to preserve generative AI data when there is reasonable expectation of litigation, and to include transcripts in litigation hold notices, as they may be relevant to discovery requests, say Nick Peterson and Corey Hauser at Wiley.
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Finding Focus: Strategies For Attorneys With ADHD
Given the prevalence of ADHD among attorneys, it is imperative that the legal community gain a better understanding of how ADHD affects well-being, and that resources and strategies exist for attorneys with this disability to manage their symptoms and achieve success, say Casey Dixon at Dixon Life Coaching and Krista Larson at Stinson.
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Keeping Tabs On Fight Over Board Diversity Rule At 5th Circ.
Attorneys at Mintz dissect why the Fifth Circuit rejected a constitutional challenge to Nasdaq’s new requirement that listed companies disclose board diversity data, assess how a petition calling the decision pro-discrimination may fare, and discuss where companies that have yet to meet the exchange's diversity goals go next.
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Employers Should Review Training Repayment Tactics
State and federal examination of employee training repayment agreements has intensified, and with the potential for this tool to soon be severely limited, employers should review their options, including pivoting to other retention strategies, says Aaron Vance at Barnes & Thornburg.
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AI's Baked-In Bias: What To Watch Out For
The federal AI executive order is a direct acknowledgment of the perils of inherent bias in artificial intelligence systems, and highlights the need for legal professionals to thoroughly vet AI systems, including data and sources, algorithms and AI training methods, and more, say Jonathan Hummel and Jonathan Talcott at Ballard Spahr.
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'Miss Manners' Scenarios Holds Job Accommodation Lessons
Robin Shea at Constangy looks at the potentially negative legal consequences for employers who follow some advice recently given in the Washington Post's "Miss Manners" column, and offers solutions of her own.
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Cos.' Trade Secret Measures Must Adjust To Remote-Work Era
Several recent cases demonstrate that companies need to reevaluate and adjust their trade secret protection strategies in this new age of remote work, says Stephanie Riley at Womble Bond.
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How Biden's AI Order Stacks Up Against Calif. And G7 Activity
Evaluating the federal AI executive order alongside the California AI executive order and the G7's Hiroshima AI Code of Conduct can offer a more robust picture of key risks and concerns companies should proactively work to mitigate as they build or integrate artificial intelligence tools into their products and services, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.