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Mealey's Employment

  • August 18, 2025

    1978 Agreement That Limited Va. City’s Hiring Practices Abolished In Federal Court

    NORFOLK, Va. — A consent decree lodged in 1978 to resolve a civil rights lawsuit alleging discrimination against the recruitment and hiring of Black people and women in the city of Norfolk, Va.’s police and fire departments through implementation of a series of quotas was terminated by a Virginia federal judge in granting an unopposed motion filed by the United States contending that the city has complied with the order and met the employment goals.

  • August 15, 2025

    Fla. Federal Judge Rules On Claims In Transgender Teachers’ Pronoun Law Dispute

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Florida federal judge opined in an order on cross-motions for summary judgment that two transgender teachers who were prohibited by a state law from using female gendered pronouns with students were discriminated against on the basis of sex in violation and preemption of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 but did not experience a hostile work environment or discrimination pursuant to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 or the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

  • August 15, 2025

    9th Circuit Denies Rehearing After Wage Ruling For Immigration Detainee Class

    SEATTLE — A split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc filed by a for-profit company that runs the Northwest Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center (NWIPC) after the panel majority ruled that the application of the Washington Minimum Wage Act (WMWA) to voluntary work programs (VWP) for federal immigration detainees housed at NWIPC does not violate the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity, the state law is not preempted by federal law and the NWIPC operator does not have derivative sovereign immunity.

  • August 15, 2025

    Timeclock Seller Prevails On Employer’s Cross-Claims In Illinois Privacy Action

    CHICAGO — A company facing an ongoing class action involving finger-scan timeclocks that it sold has had an employer’s cross-claims against it dismissed with prejudice in an Illinois federal court, where a judge recently found that under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), “the templates at issue in this case constitute biometric information.”

  • August 14, 2025

    Split 4th Circuit Vacates Preliminary Injunction In Unions’ DOGE Data Access Suit

    RICHMOND, Va. — A trial court abused its discretion when it found that unions and veterans were likely to prevail on each issue raised in a lawsuit opposing the sharing of individuals’ personally identifiable information (PII) with the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), split Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, vacating a preliminary injunction and remanding for further proceedings.

  • August 14, 2025

    7th Circuit Upholds Ruling Limiting Claims Heard By Jury In IDOT Retaliation Suit

    CHICAGO —  A Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that a former Illinois transportation engineer could not prove that he was not “constructively discharged” and was assigned low-value projects as a result of complaints he filed alleging gender discrimination, affirming a portion of a trial court’s summary judgment order that limited claims heard by a jury in a Title VII retaliation suit.

  • August 14, 2025

    JMOL, New Trial Motions Denied; $21.35M Retaliatory Termination Verdict Stands

    SHERMAN, Texas — A federal judge in Texas denied four motions for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) or a new trial by officials and government found to have contributed to the firing of a former police captain in retaliation for submitting an affidavit supporting a motion to change venue filed by a jail administrator charged with permitting an inmate to escape, upholding a jury’s award of $21.35 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

  • August 14, 2025

    9th Circuit En Banc Majority Affirms Order Backing School District Vaccine Policy

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals en banc majority ruled that a Los Angeles school district’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate policy was subject to review and survives under scrutiny because the district “could have reasonably concluded that COVID-19 vaccines would protect the health and safety of its employees and students” in affirming the trial court’s order granting the district’s motion for judgment on the pleadings.

  • August 13, 2025

    Split 3rd Circuit: Plumber’s Termination Of Union Workers Did Not Repudiate CBA

    PHILADELPHIA — An employer that stopped employing bargaining unit employees after a construction project ended and refused to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) did not effectively repudiate the CBA and is still bound by it in light of an “evergreen provision,” a split Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled, affirming judgment by a trial court.

  • August 13, 2025

    Freedom Foundation Seeks High Court Review Of California Post-Janus Law

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A California law that permits only public employees, the employees’ exclusive representative and any vendors providing services to have access to information about new employee orientation sessions constitutes viewpoint discrimination under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Freedom Foundation argues in its petition seeking review of the state law by the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • August 12, 2025

    7th Circuit Reverses Religious Accommodation Claim In Transgender Student Name Case

    CHICAGO —  Citing “material fact disputes,” a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel majority reversed and remanded an Indiana federal judge’s order granting summary judgment to a school district on a religious accommodation claim brought by a teacher who objected to a policy requiring the use of transgender students’ first names.

  • August 12, 2025

    Employees Amend Complaint Alleging Vaccine Mandate Violated Constitutional Rights

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — After a Connecticut federal judge granted a university health system’s motion to dismiss, finding that former employees alleging violations of their constitutional rights to “bodily autonomy, medical privacy and equal protection” caused by the health system’s mandatory COVID-19 policy and seeking damages under Section 1983 of Title 42 of the U.S. Code had failed to demonstrate that the health system was a state actor, the employees filed a second amended complaint.

  • August 11, 2025

    Judge OKs $100,000 EEOC Settlement With TV Network Owner Sinclair

    BALTIMORE — A Maryland federal judge has approved a consent decree in which Sinclair Broadcast Group LLC agreed to pay $100,000 to a former employee set settle an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint that the broadcaster underpaid the employee based on her race.

  • August 11, 2025

    9th Circuit Affirms Judgment For Las Vegas In Employment Discrimination Case

    SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court’s entry of judgment for the city of Las Vegas in a Black female firefighter’s employment discrimination suit, finding that the court did not abuse its discretion by not resubmitting an inconsistent verdict to the jury; the panel also affirmed the lower court’s denial of the firefighter’s motion for a new trial.

  • August 11, 2025

    Crane Company Settles EEOC Racial Discrimination Case; 5 Employees Get $525,000

    FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas federal judge has approved a consent decree between the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a Texas construction crane rental company under which the company will pay five employees $525,000 for failing to respond to complaints about racial harassment and for retaliating against an employee who complained about the behavior.

  • August 08, 2025

    10th Circuit: Rule 702 Ruling Wrongly Excluded Evidence, Not Just Expert Witness

    DENVER — A district court incorrectly expanded a ruling on a motion to exclude under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 to bar a man who alleges that a former employer violated trade secret laws from presenting evidence and fact witnesses on lost wages damages at trial, the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held.

  • August 08, 2025

    7th Circuit Sets Framework On Propriety Of Notice To Proposed Collective

    CHICAGO — Turning away from the approach associated with Lusardi v. Xerox Corp. but declining to exactly follow the two sister circuits that created alternate processes, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals instituted “a uniform, workable framework for assessing the propriety of notice to a proposed collective” in Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) cases.

  • August 07, 2025

    5th Circuit Affirms Attorney Fee, Cost Award, Garnishment In FLSA Case

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has affirmed a $188,164 attorney fee and cost award in consolidated wage lawsuits against a home health care provider, finding that the award was reasonable, that the trial court did not err in granting the plaintiffs’ motion for garnishment and that the defendant’s due process rights were not violated by the fee award.

  • August 07, 2025

    Distillery Asks High Court To Rule On Appropriate Review Of NLRB Impasse Decision

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A distillery asks the U.S. Supreme Court in its petition for a writ of certiorari to decide the scope of a court’s review of a decision by the National Labor Relations Board and to decide when an employer is excused from bargaining to impasse after a split District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the NLRB’s determination that the employer committed six unfair labor practices when attempting to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement.

  • August 06, 2025

    $26M Settlement In Mastercard Pay Discrimination Class Suit Wins Final Approval

    WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.  — Mastercard Inc. will pay $26 million to settle a class and collective action alleging that it systematically treated female, Black and Hispanic employees less favorably than white or male employees performing similar work in violation of equal pay and antidiscrimination laws; a federal judge in New York granted final approval to the settlement, finding the relief “significant and meaningful.”

  • August 06, 2025

    Stay Renewed In Peace Nonprofit Workers’ Suit Over Government’s ‘Bloodletting’

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A stay of a lawsuit by former U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) employees who accuse the federal government of breaking in and taking over the headquarters of the nonprofit before dismantling programs was extended Aug. 5 by a federal judge in the District of Columbia, pending further developments in a related case brought by USIP, its board and staff challenging their removal at the direction of President Donald J. Trump.

  • August 05, 2025

    Federal Judge Grants Joint Motion Nixing 1980s-Era Hiring Limitation Agreement

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia granted a joint motion to dissolve a more than 40-year-old consent decree the federal government deemed racially discriminatory and “no longer in the public interest” that allegedly tied federal officials’ hands to hire the best, most qualified employees through elimination of a merit-based test because of “its adverse impact upon blacks and Hispanics.”

  • August 04, 2025

    7th Circuit Rules Termination Notice Sufficient In Withdrawal Liability Row

    CHICAGO — Ruling in part that an employer provided sufficient notice that it was terminating a collective bargaining agreement (CBA), the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeal vacated a $166,350.75 attorney fee award and reversed summary judgment that had been entered against an employer that withdrew from a multiemployer pension plan.

  • August 04, 2025

    9th Circuit Stays Preliminary Injunction In Collective Bargaining EO Case

    SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 1 stayed pending appeal a trial court’s preliminary injunction issued in a case by six unions suing over a March executive order that limited certain federal workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively.

  • August 04, 2025

    4th Circuit: Fired Meat Manager’s Food Safety Claims Could Have Led To Termination

    RICHMOND, Va. — A fired Kraft Heinz Foods production manager has grounds to argue that complaints he raised about food safety in violation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) at the South Carolina plant where he worked could have contributed to his termination, a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled in vacating a summary judgment order and remanding the case back to the trial court.