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Mealey's Employment

  • June 11, 2025

    Government, Unions And Others File High Court Briefing In Federal Worker RIF Appeal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Unions representing federal workers as well as various groups, counties and cities impacted by recent widespread layoffs of federal workers filed a response in the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that a stay application filed by the federal government after a preliminary injunction in a case challenging that layoffs should be denied as the “request contravenes the fundamental purpose of preliminary relief,” but the government in its reply filed one day later, on June 10, insists that a stay is necessary.

  • June 11, 2025

    5th Circuit Remands Fired United Worker’s Dismissed Age Discrimination Claims

    NEW ORLEANS — A terminated United Airlines employee who sued her employer for age discrimination can bring her federal and state claims back to a federal court in Texas after the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals determined that the Railway Labor Act (RLA) does not preclude or preempt hearing the claims in a federal forum.

  • June 09, 2025

    9th Circuit Institutes Test For ERISA Releases, Reverses As To Named Plaintiffs

    SAN FRANCISCO — Saying it is taking the same approach as two sister circuits, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals quoted Vizcaino v. Microsoft Corp. in holding “that releases and waivers under” the Employee Retirement Income Security Act “must ‘withstand special scrutiny designed to prevent potential employer or fiduciary abuse’”; it accordingly reversed and remanded summary judgment against the two named plaintiffs in a long-running class action concerning severance benefits.

  • June 09, 2025

    Split U.S. Supreme Court Resumes DOGE Access To SSA Records

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. Supreme Court majority on June 6 concluded that the Social Security Administration (SSA) must again provide access to agency records to a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) SSA team, staying a preliminary injunction issued in April by a federal judge in Maryland.

  • June 09, 2025

    Supreme Court Grants Petition In DOGE Discovery Order Case; Narrowing Ordered

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. Supreme Court majority on June 6 treated a stay application as a petition for a writ of certiorari and granted it in an appeal challenging two trial court discovery orders in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case regarding U.S. DOGE Service’s (DOGE or USDS) authority.

  • June 06, 2025

    3rd Circuit Partially Restores Fire Department Admin’s Beard Discrimination Claims

    PHILADELPHIA — An Atlantic City Fire Department employee who sued the city after it failed to allow him exemption from a facial hair grooming policy for religious reasons can pursue a religious accommodation claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and a U.S. Constitution freedom of religion claim following a Third Circuit U.S. Appeals Court order that partially vacated a New Jersey federal judge’s opinion.

  • June 06, 2025

    Panel Upholds Constructive Discharge Claim Of Employee Who Refused COVID Tests

    MINNEAPOLIS — Finding that a former county employee had established that her objection to her employer’s COVID-19 vaccination-or-test policy was based on sincerely held religious beliefs and that she plausibly alleged constructive discharge in being faced with giving up certain benefits, a panel of the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 5 reversed the dismissal of her lawsuit by a Minnesota federal court.

  • June 06, 2025

    Vaccine Refusal Discrimination Lawsuit Based On ‘Body-As-A-Temple’ Belief Settles

    COLUMBIA, S.C. — Having been advised by counsel that the parties had settled a claim of religious discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act stemming from a former employee’s refusal to become vaccinated against COVID-19 as mandated by the employer, a South Carolina federal magistrate judge on June 5 dismissed the case without prejudice.

  • June 05, 2025

    1st Circuit Denies Stay After Department of Education Staffing Cuts Enjoined

    BOSTON — The federal government failed to provide evidence warranting a stay of a trial court’s preliminary injunction in two consolidated cases challenging the alleged dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) that halts a reduction-in-force (RIF), the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled June 4.

  • June 05, 2025

    U.S. High Court Rejects ‘Background Circumstances’ Rule In Worker’s Bias Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ “additional ‘background circumstances’ requirement” in a bias case brought by a member of a majority group “is not consistent with Title VII’s text or our case law construing the statute,” a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 5.

  • June 04, 2025

    11th Circuit Vacates FMLA Interference Damages, Upholds ADA Damages, Reinstatement

    ATLANTA — A trial court erred in upholding the portion of a jury’s verdict in an age and leave discrimination case that awarded a former employee $200,000 in damages for Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) interference as the worker “presented no evidence of lost compensation or actual monetary losses, let alone any evidence supporting the amount of the award,” the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in an unpublished per curiam opinion.

  • June 03, 2025

    Dismissal Of BIPA Suit Denied; Amendment Limiting Damages Is Not Retroactive

    CHICAGO — An August 2024 amendment to the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) that limits the amount of damages an individual may recover was a change rather than a clarification and was not retroactive, a federal judge in that state ruled, denying a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction filed by the operators of medical facilities accused by employees of collecting and storing their information.

  • June 03, 2025

    Government Files New High Court Stay Application In Federal Worker RIF Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government on June 2 filed a new application to stay in the U.S. Supreme Court after a trial court issued a preliminary injunction in a case challenging layoffs of federal workers; the application was filed less than two weeks after the government withdrew its initial application in the case seeking a stay of a temporary restraining order (TRO).

  • June 03, 2025

    High Court Majority Says It Won’t Hear Houston Adult Club Race Discrimination Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. Supreme Court majority on June 2 denied a petition for writ of certiorari filed by an African-American female entertainer who asked the court to determine whether the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was correct in determining that her allegations of civil rights violations by two Houston clubs for refusing her entry to work on multiple occasions because of her race were barred by the statute of limitations.

  • June 03, 2025

    Aerospace Engineering Firms’ Settlements Granted Final OK In No-Poaching Suit

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A federal judge in Connecticut issued a pair of orders granting final approval of approximately $60.5 million in settlements reached in a class case by workers who accuse aerospace engineering firms and executives of conspiring to not solicit, recruit, hire without prior approval or otherwise compete for engineers and other skilled employees and awarding attorney fees, costs and service awards.

  • May 30, 2025

    Ex-Employees’ Claims Over Duty-Free Shops’ Data Breach Partly Survive Dismissal

    CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — Negligence and breach of implied contracts brought by two former employees against the operators of airport duty-free shops may proceed, a New York federal judge ruled, while dismissing unjust enrichment and fiduciary duty claims related to a 2023 data breach.

  • May 30, 2025

    5th Circuit Denies NLRB’s Attempt To Revive Decades-Old Damages Order Dismissal

    NEW ORLEANS — A divided Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel denied all statutory and procedural arguments made by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in an attempt to dust off and enforce a decades-old dismissed order that would have required a small Louisiana plumbing company to pay more than $100,000 in damages for laying off three employees during a failed unionization effort and instead granted the company’s cross-petition for review.

  • May 29, 2025

    Split 5th Circuit Again Denies Petition For Review Of NLRB’s Complaint Withdrawal

    NEW ORLEANS — Ruling for a second time on a case remanded by the U.S. Supreme Court, a divided Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on May 28 denied an employer’s petition for review of a decision by the National Labor Relations Board that an acting general counsel may withdraw an unfair labor practice complaint that his predecessor issued against a union.

  • May 29, 2025

    Judge Dismisses ‘Flamin’ Hot’ Cheetos Inventor’s Defamation, Discrimination Claims

    LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge on May 28 granted PepsiCo Inc. and Frito-Lay Inc.’s motions to strike and to dismiss a lawsuit brought against them by a former executive who says he invented the “Flamin’ Hot” variety of Cheetos snacks and claimed that the company defamed him and cost him the opportunity to be featured in a documentary by casting doubt on his inventorship claims.

  • May 29, 2025

    Ex-Employee’s Beef With Meatpacker’s Data Breach Response Sent To Arbitration

    SAVANNAH, Ga. — Finding a beef producer’s arbitration agreement to be binding on a former employee that sued the company over a 2024 data breach, a Georgia federal judge directed the plaintiff to submit her putative negligence and breach of contract class claims to an arbitrator.

  • May 29, 2025

    Register Of Copyrights Denied TRO In Suit Challenging ‘Purported’ Removal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) filed by the register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office seeking to enjoin her removal was denied from the bench by a federal judge in the District of Columbia on May 28.

  • May 29, 2025

    5th Circuit: FCC Lacks Authority To Require Employment Demographics Data

    NEW ORLEANS — The Federal Communications Commission lacks the statutory authority to require radio and television broadcasters to disclose employment demographics data, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, vacating a February 2024 FCC order.

  • May 28, 2025

    Trump’s EO Targeting WilmerHale ‘Struck Down,’ Declared ‘Unconstitutional’

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on May 27 dismissed with prejudice three counts brought by Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP in its lawsuit challenging President Donald J. Trump’s March executive order (EO) targeting the firm and partially granted WilmerHale’s summary judgment motion, declaring the EO “unconstitutional.”

  • May 28, 2025

    Federal Judge: Jenner & Block Executive Order Violates The U.S. Constitution

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An executive order (EO) issued by President Donald J. Trump in March targeting Jenner & Block LLP “seeks to chill legal representation the administration doesn’t like” and “violates the Constitution,” a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled, enjoining the EO’s “operation in full.”

  • May 28, 2025

    Tyson Supervisors, Executives Still On Hook For Claims In COVID Worker Deaths Case

    DES MOINES, Iowa — Claims alleging gross negligence and fraud against supervisors and executives of Tyson Foods Inc. and Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. by families of workers who died from COVID-19 can be litigated after an Iowa Supreme Court panel reversed and remanded a dismissal.