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Mealey's Employment

May 06, 2025
ERISA, Breach Of Contract Claims Fail In Row Over ‘Pre-Separation Programs’

CHICAGO — Dismissing a putative class action over United Airlines Inc. early retirement programs with leave to amend but expressing skepticism “that the plaintiffs can cure the problems with the complaint,” an Illinois federal judge ruled in part that a policy the airline announced in 2017 “does not constitute an . . . employee welfare benefit plan” that is governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
May 05, 2025
Stay Of Injunctive Relief Pending Appeal Denied In Collective Bargaining EO Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia issued a minute order denying the federal government’s request to stay pending appeal a 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 05, 2025
Judge: 3 Nonprofits Suing Over DEI, Gender EOs Largely Failed To Show Standing

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three nonprofits that sued President Donald J. Trump and other federal agencies and officials challenging the constitutionality of three executive orders (EOs) regarding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and gender identity failed to show that they have standing related to a portion of the challenged provisions as the EOs “inflict no concrete harm on private parties—or at least not on these parties” and failed to sufficiently allege constitutional violations on their remaining claims, a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled May 2, denying the groups’ motion for a preliminary injunction.
May 05, 2025
Judge: U.S. Constitution Bars President’s EO Targeting Perkins Coie

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A March executive order (EO) “stigmatiz[ing] and penalize[ing]” Perkins Coie LLP for its representation “of clients pursing claims and taking position with which the current President disagrees, as well as the Firm’s own speech” is a violation of the U.S. “Constitution and is thus null and void,” a federal judge in the District of Columbia declared May 2, granting the firm’s summary judgment motion and denying a motion to dismiss filed by the various federal government defendants.
May 02, 2025
6th Circuit Denies Agency’s Request For Rehearing On ‘Salaried’ Worker Decision

CINCINNATTI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 1 denied an employment agency’s petition for rehearing en banc of an earlier split panel decision that classified a pipe inspector who was provided guaranteed pay each week and paid his hourly amount for work performed in excess of eight hours as a “salaried” worker exempt from overtime, with the original panel finding that the issues were “fully considered” and no other judge requesting a vote to reconsider.
May 02, 2025
7th Circuit Rehearing Sought Over Back Pay, Seniority In Sheriff’s Office ADA Case

CHICAGO — An Illinois county and its sheriff say in a petition for rehearing that the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ decision to affirm seniority benefits and reinstate the possibility of back pay for a former correctional officer who sued for alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and the U.S. Constitution for requiring release of his medical records to complete a fitness-for-duty exam to return to work after he was put on leave “conflicts with other Circuit Courts of Appeals, including authority that the district court relied on” and would be “problematic” in future litigation.
May 01, 2025
4th Circuit En Banc Majority Won’t Stay Injunction In DOGE, SSA Records Case

RICHMOND, Va. — A divided en banc Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 30 denied a motion by the Social Security Administration (SSA) and other federal government agencies and officials to stay a preliminary injunction order pending appeal in a case over the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) access to SSA data.
May 01, 2025
5th Circuit Denies Rehearing For Shriners Employees Fired Over Vaccine Refusal

NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied a petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc that several Shriners Hospital for Children employees who were fired for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine filed seeking reconsideration of a ruling dismissing federal and state claims against their former employer.
May 01, 2025
Law Students Sue EEOC, Chair Over Personal Data Requests In DEI Hiring Process Probe

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three law students who applied to or worked at one or more of 20 law firms that were sent letters by Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Acting Chair Andrea Lucas requesting disclosure of “sensitive personal information” regarding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring processes sued the EEOC and Lucas in District of Columbia federal court alleging that they “acted ultra vires in excess of their authority under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964” by sending the letters without a properly filed charge.
April 30, 2025
High Court: Reservists Owed Differential Pay For National Emergency Active Duty

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled April 30 that a U.S. Coast Guard reservist called to active duty during a time in which a national emergency has been declared “is entitled to differential pay without having to prove that his service was substantively connected in some particular way to some particular emergency.”
April 30, 2025
News Organization, Workers Agree To $4.5M WARN Act Class Settlement

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted preliminary approval of a $4.5 million settlement to end 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.
April 29, 2025
Magistrate Judge Rules On Discovery In EEOC, United HealthCare Vaccine Mandate Suit

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal magistrate judge in Ohio ordered the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to “work with” United HealthCare Services Inc. in narrowing down which details of a fired work-from-home employee’s medical records should be considered when they confer on outstanding discovery disputes in a lawsuit alleging that United violated the employee’s rights when it denied her a request for a religious exemption from its COVID-19 vaccine mandate and terminated her.
April 29, 2025
Parties Agree To Dismiss; Challenge To $12M Verdict For Vaccine Refuser Dropped

DETROIT — The parties filed a stipulation of dismissal with prejudice on April 28 in a case in which a Michigan federal jury awarded a former employee of a medical insurer nearly $3 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages after finding the insurer liable for discrimination for failing to accommodate her religious objection to receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
April 29, 2025
U.S. High Court Hears Arguments On Veterans’ Pay In Appeal Of Class Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 28 heard arguments from counsel representing veterans and the United States in a class dispute over the application of the Barring Act to settlements of combat-related special compensation (CRSC) requests.
April 25, 2025
ER Doctor Whose Suspension For Refusing COVID Vaccine Was Upheld Seeks Rehearing

PHILADELPHIA — An emergency room doctor on April 24 filed a petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc of a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals 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.
April 25, 2025
Human Rights Groups Sue Homeland Security For Closing 3 Oversight Offices

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three human rights organizations on April 24 filed a complaint against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem seeking to reverse the shutdown of three DHS offices dealing with civil rights and civil liberties, immigration issues and violations at federal immigration detention facilities.
April 24, 2025
4th Circuit: Local Court Attorney Fee Matrix Isn’t ‘Presumptively Reasonable’

RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has vacated and remanded an attorney fee award in a fair labor practices case, finding that the district court improperly used an outdated local court rule’s attorney fee matrix to determine “presumptively reasonable” rates.
April 24, 2025
OPM, Acting Director Appeal Order To Halt Federal Agency Firing Mandates

SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and its acting director filed an appeal on April 23, several days after a federal judge in the District of Columbia enjoined them from directing other federal agencies to terminate employees.
April 24, 2025
U.S. Asks Supreme Court For Stay Of Military Transgender Ban Injunction

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States, the president and military leaders filed an application in the U.S. Supreme Court on April 24 seeking a stay of a trial court’s March 27 preliminary injunction granted to servicemembers and an organization that sue in a federal court in Washington challenging President Donald J. Trump’s executive order (EO) banning transgender people from the military.
April 24, 2025
Distiller Seeks En Banc Rehearing After NLRB Impasse, Terms Ruling Is Enforced

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Hood River Distillers Inc. filed a petition for a rehearing en banc after a split District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied its petition for review of a National Labor Relations Board decision in a case in which the employer 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.
April 24, 2025
Employment Agency Wants 6th Circuit Rehearing On ‘Salaried’ Worker Decision

CINCINNATI — An employment agency that a split Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled improperly classified a pipe inspector who was provided guaranteed pay each week and paid his hourly amount for work performed in excess of eight hours as a “salaried” worker exempt from overtime is asking for panel reconsideration or rehearing en banc, arguing that the opinion conflicts with U.S. Supreme Court and circuit court precedent, “involves questions of exceptional importance” and does not conform with the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) “unambiguous language” for salary basis regulations.
April 24, 2025
Shriners Employees Fired Over Vaccine Ask 5th Circuit To Rehear Claims Dismissal

NEW ORLEANS — Several Shriners Hospital for Children employees who were fired for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine are asking the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reconsider an earlier ruling dismissing federal and state claims against their former employer, arguing that the panel’s decision misapplied the law, violated the separation of powers doctrine and denied constitutional due process rights.
April 23, 2025
Government Appeals Federal Judge’s Suspension Of CFPB Reduction-In-Force

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government appealed an order by a federal judge in the District of Columbia suspending the firing of more than 1,400 workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB); one day later the judge issued a minute order clarifying that the order “will remain in place for no more than 14 days, ‘unless before that time the court, for good cause, extends it for a like period or the adverse party consents to a longer extension.’”
April 23, 2025
U.S. Supreme Court Declines To Hear University Manager’s COVID-19 Vaccine Appeal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied a pro se petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a former University of Kentucky department manager after a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a summary judgment ruling for the university’s board of trustees in a dispute over a COVID-19 test-or-vaccinate policy.
April 22, 2025
Unions Seek Injunction In DOL DOGE Access Suit After Partial Dismissal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Labor unions challenging access to U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) records by personnel from U.S. Digital Service and the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization (together, DOGE) filed a motion in a federal court in the District of Columbia for a preliminary injunction; the filing was made two days after a judge dismissed the plaintiffs’ standalone Privacy Act claim as well several claims brought under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).