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Mealey's Employment

  • May 20, 2025

    $6 Million Settlement Of Class Suit Over Union’s Data Breach Gets Final Approval

    NEW YORK — Two union members were granted final approval of class negligence and breach of contract claims against a labor union over a 2023 data breach, with a New York federal judge deeming the $6 million settlement to be preferable to the expenses and “uncertainties of continued litigation.”

  • May 20, 2025

    Rehearing Denied To ER Doctor Suspended For Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine

    PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied the petition of an emergency room doctor for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc of a panel opinion affirming the judgment of a Pennsylvania federal court, which granted summary judgment in favor of a hospital in the doctor’s lawsuit alleging religious discrimination and retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA) after the doctor was refused a religious exemption from a company-mandated COVID-19 vaccination and suspended.

  • May 19, 2025

    U.S. High Court Grants 2 Military Differential Pay Petitions, Vacates Judgments

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 19 granted two petitions for writ of certiorari filed by federal employees challenging denials of their requests for differential pay when they were called to military service, vacated the judgments in the two cases and remanded to the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for further consideration in light of the April decision in Feliciano v. Department of Transportation.

  • May 19, 2025

    Split D.C. Circuit Stays Collective Bargaining EO Preliminary Injunction

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority on May 16 stayed pending appeal a trial court’s preliminary injunction ruling in a lawsuit by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) seeking to halt the impact of a March executive order (EO) that the union says eliminates collective bargaining for approximately two-thirds of the federal workforce.

  • May 19, 2025

    Judge Certifies Collective Action In Workday AI Hiring Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — Any differences between members of an employment discrimination case related to Workday Inc.’s use of artificial intelligence to sort and rank job applicants are meaningless at this stage because the members are “alike in the central way that matters,” a federal judge in California said May 16 in granting conditional certification after finding that the sorting and ranking of job applicants creates a unified policy and that its rankings could constitute a hiring recommendation.

  • May 16, 2025

    1st Circuit Affirms Jury’s $10K Award To Injured Laborer For ADA, Mass. Law Claims

    BOSTON — A First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found no grounds to award a higher payout to a former employee of a demolition and redevelopment company seeking more than a jury’s $10,035 damages award for claims of retaliation and discrimination pursuant to the Americans with the Disabilities Act (ADA) and Massachusetts law after his employment ended following his supervisor’s alleged failure to accommodate his work restrictions due to an injury.

  • May 16, 2025

    Attorney Fees Motion Deemed Premature After Defense Verdict In Pandemic Policy Case

    ST. LOUIS — A federal judge in Missouri found premature an employee’s pro se motion to block any request for attorney fees or sanctions after a jury returned a verdict for her employer in her lawsuit challenging the organization’s pandemic policies.

  • May 16, 2025

    Debtors Seek Judgment In Bankruptcy Dispute Over Deferred Compensation Plans

    HOUSTON —  In the aftermath of a decision that two deferred compensation plans associated with Steward Health Care System LLC are “top hat” ones and therefore roughly $60 million in “rabbi trusts” used for them could be liquidated as part of Chapter 11 bankruptcies, the debtors urged a Texas federal bankruptcy court to rule that a putative class adversary complaint in which plan participants invoke the Employee Retirement Income Security Act “is foreclosed by the doctrines of law of the case and issue preclusion.”

  • May 15, 2025

    D.C. Circuit Denies Mandamus Petition Filed After DOGE Discovery Orde r

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia U.S. Court of Appeals on May 14 denied a petition for a writ of mandamus filed by U.S. DOGE Service (DOGE or USDS) after a nonprofit’s discovery motion seeking information relevant to whether DOGE has substantial authority independent of President Donald J. Trump was partially granted.

  • May 15, 2025

    10th Circuit Reverses Union Interrogation Finding In Hallmark Film Production Case

    DENVER — A split 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel determined that the National Labor Relations Board had “substantial evidence” to find that two Utah film corporations committed unfair labor practices in violation of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) when they threatened to retaliate against employees on the set of two Hallmark movies if they joined or supported a union and refused to call them back from layoff but unanimously reversed the board’s finding that one of the corporations “unlawfully interrogated an employee about union activity.”

  • May 13, 2025

    2nd Of 3 Consolidated Cases Over DOGE Formation Voluntarily Dismissed

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A teachers’ union and other groups that brought a case that challenged the formation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and that was consolidated with two other similar complaints in a federal court in the District of Columbia was voluntarily dismissed by the groups on May 12; the notice was filed one month after the federal government defendants moved to dismiss.

  • May 13, 2025

    6th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Ruling In Air, Space Force Members’ Vaccine Case

    CINCINNATI — A trial court properly dismissed as moot a class complaint by members of the U.S. Air Force and Space Force who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine for religious reasons after the U.S. Supreme Court vacated as moot the preliminary injunction previously issued in the case, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled May 12 in an unpublished opinion.

  • May 13, 2025

    Federal Government Appeals TRO Halting Agency RIF, Reorganization Plans For 14 Days

    SAN FRANCISCO — The federal government filed a notice of appeal in a federal court in California on the same day that a judge in that court issued a 14-day pause in the form of a temporary restraining order (TRO) on further approval of reduction-in-force (RIF) notice periods by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and orders by U.S. DOGE Service for federal agencies to reduce programs and staff; two days later, the federal government filed in the trial court a motion for a protective order or an immediate administrative stay related to disclosure of the Agency RIF and Reorganization Plans (ARRPs).

  • May 13, 2025

    Vaccine Refusal Discrimination Claim Restored Based On Recent Circuit Decision

    COLUMBIA, S.C. — Acknowledging that her prior dismissal of a former employee’s failure-to-accommodate claim to the extent it was based on her “body-as-a-temple” religious belief could no longer stand in view of a recent decision of the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a South Carolina federal judge granted the employee’s motion for partial reconsideration and restored that aspect of her claim of religious discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act stemming from her refusal to become vaccinated against COVID-19 as mandated by the employer.

  • May 12, 2025

    5th Circuit Vacates ‘Religious- Liberty Training’ In Bias Case Against Southwest

    NEW ORLEANS — A contempt order requiring that Southwest Airlines Co. lawyers attend “religious-liberty training” as a sanction in a flight attendant’s case over her firing for online abortion speech was vacated by the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appels in an opinion in which the panel also reversed denial of the airline’s motion for judgment as a matter of law on two of the employee’s religious-belief based claims and affirmed judgment against the airline on the employee’s practice-based Title VII for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 claims.

  • May 09, 2025

    Religious COVID-19 Vaccination Exemption Suit Dismissed Per Stipulation Of Parties

    DETROIT — Pursuant to the stipulation of a health insurance company and a former employee who alleged that she was wrongly denied a religious exemption from the company’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, a Michigan federal judge on May 8 dismissed with prejudice the employee’s claims.

  • May 08, 2025

    Intelligence Agencies Appeal Preliminary Injunction Order In DEIA Positions Case

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Central Intelligence Agency and the directors of the two intelligence agencies filed a notice of appeal more than a month after a federal judge in Virginia partially granted a renewed motion for preliminary injunction filed by national security workers alleging that they were wrongly forced to choose resignation or termination because they were in temporary assignments related to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA).

  • May 08, 2025

    5th Circuit: No Jurisdiction Over Constitutionality Of Amazon NLRB Proceedings

    NEW ORLEANS — A split Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction an appeal by Amazon.com Services LLC challenging the “constructive denial” of its injunctive relief motion concerning two National Labor Relations Board proceedings that it alleged it was being subjected to in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

  • May 08, 2025

    Split D.C. Circuit Alters Stay Of Preliminary Injunction, Reinstates CFPB RIF Ban

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In pair of orders, one by a federal judge in the District of Columbia and one by a District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority, issued in a case over the termination of more than 1,400 workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the appellate panel modified an earlier partial stay of a preliminary injunction in the case that effectively reinstated the ban on the reduction in force, and the trial court judge then denied as moot a motion to enforce the preliminary injunction sought by a workers union and other groups.

  • May 08, 2025

    5th Circuit: Texas District Not Wrong To Fire Teacher Over Absence After COVID

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed that a Texas school district did not violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) or the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) by firing a teacher who did not return to her classroom after the COVID-19 pandemic because of concerns about contracting the virus, citing failure to meet the burdens for proving the claims.

  • May 07, 2025

    Preliminary Injunction Halts Function, Staff Reductions At 3 Federal Agencies

    PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A federal judge in Rhode Island on May 6 granted a preliminary injunction motion by nearly two dozen states restraining the federal government from implementing an executive order (EO) “attempt[ing] to dismantle congressionally sanctioned agencies” as applied to the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS).

  • May 07, 2025

    En Banc Rehearing Denied In Case Challenging NLRB Impasse, Terms Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing en banc filed by Hood River Distillers Inc. after a split panel denied the employer’s petition for review of a National Labor Relations Board decision in a case in which the company alleged that it reached an impasse while trying to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and accused the union of engaging in delay tactics before and during the coronavirus pandemic.

  • May 06, 2025

    Split U.S. High Court Stays Injunction In Military Transgender Ban Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided U.S. Supreme Court on May 6 granted the federal government’s application to stay pending appeal a March preliminary injunction granted to servicemembers and an organization that sued in a federal court in Washington challenging President Donald J. Trump’s executive order (EO) banning transgender people from the military.

  • May 06, 2025

    Stay Of Military Transgender Ban Injunction Sought From U.S. High Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A stay of a trial court’s March 27 preliminary injunction granted to servicemembers and an organization that sued in a federal court in Washington challenging President Donald J. Trump’s executive order (EO) banning transgender people from the military is necessary as the federal government is likely to succeed on the merits of its claims, the questions presented warrant high court review, the injunction causes irreparable harm to the government and the public and the balance of equities favors a stay, the federal government argues in its reply supporting its stay application filed in the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • May 06, 2025

    Government Applies To U.S. High Court For Injunction Stay In SSA Records Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Social Security Administration (SSA) and other federal government agencies and officials filed an application in the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of a trial court’s injunction and a request for an administrative stay in a case over Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to SSA data.