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Mealey's Employment

  • July 24, 2025

    D.C. Circuit: NLRB’s New Tenure Protections View Eliminates Controversy In Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court’s dismissal of a case by two baristas challenging the constitutionality of National Labor Relations Board members’ statutory tenure protections, opining that the court lacks jurisdiction under Article III of the U.S. Constitution after the NLRB switched its position mid-appeal, resulting in full agreement on that issue by both sides.

  • July 24, 2025

    Split U.S. Supreme Court Stays Reinstatement Of CPSC Members

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided U.S. Supreme Court on July 23 granted a stay sought by the federal government after a trial court’s June 13 ruling reinstating three members of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission who were terminated without cause in May by President Donald J. Trump.

  • July 23, 2025

    Cruise Rape Claim Can’t Be Arbitrated Under New York Convention, Judge Says

    MIAMI — A Florida federal judge denied a cruise company’s motion to compel arbitration of an employee’s allegations that she was drugged and raped by another employee on a vessel at sea, ruling that the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (EFAA) prohibits arbitration of the dispute under the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York Convention).

  • July 23, 2025

    Union Seeks Rehearing After Stay Of Collective Bargaining EO Injunction

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) filed a petition for rehearing en banc in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals after an appellate panel stayed pending appeal a trial court’s preliminary injunction in the union’s case challenging a March executive order (EO) that eliminated the collective bargaining rights of various agencies and agency subdivisions.

  • July 23, 2025

    11th Circuit: APA’s ‘Good Cause’ Removal Procedure Applies To DOJ ALJs

    ATLANTA — The Administrative Procedure Act’s (APA) “good cause” removal procedure does not violate the U.S. Constitution when applied to U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) administrative law judges (ALJs), an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, reversing a trial court’s summary judgment ruling for Walmart Inc. in an immigration law violation case and vacating a permanent injunction barring the chief ALJ from adjudicating 20 Immigration and Customs Enforcement complaints against the retailer.

  • July 23, 2025

    Workers’ Religious Exemption Vaccine Claims Don’t Survive 6th Circuit A 2nd Time

    CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel that in 2024 reversed the dismissal of two of 46 hospital workers’ religious discrimination claims over exemption from a COVID-19 vaccine mandate ruled in subsequent appeals that the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the hospital against one of the workers and dismissal of the other’s claims with prejudice were the proper decisions.

  • July 21, 2025

    En Banc Reconsideration Of Stay Denied In Collective Bargaining EO Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a motion for reconsideration en banc, which it noted was filed as a petition for rehearing en banc, filed by National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) after a panel majority on May 16 stayed pending appeal a trial court’s preliminary injunction ruling in the NTEU’s lawsuit challenging a March executive order (EO) issued by President Donald J. Trump that the union says eliminates collective bargaining for approximately two-thirds of the federal workforce.

  • July 21, 2025

    Judge Dismisses Privacy Suits By FBI Agents Who Worked On Trump Cases

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and a nonprofit organization who in two complaints seek to stop the publication or dissemination of a list allegedly being compiled of FBI employees who were involved in investigating two events involving President Donald J. Trump have made claims that “are too speculative,” a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled, granting a motion to dismiss filed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the United States.

  • 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.