Labor & Employment Law
Labor & Employment Law
The pediatric critical care specialist failed to show irreparable harm after losing his job for noncompliance with the hospital’s vaccine mandate. After objecting to his employer’s vaccine mandate on religious grounds and subsequently losing his job,...
“Bloomington's ordinance is similar to municipal ordinances enacted in three other Minnesota cities—Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Duluth.” On June 6, 2022, after a year of public meetings and feedback, the Bloomington City Council unanimously approved a...
“On April 8, 2022, OSHA launched a national emphasis program to protect workers from heat-related illness and injuries.” High temperatures in the Southwestern United States have and continue to break records. In Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Tex...
Specifically, she had sought class certification for all who had paid fees for or on behalf of students for the use of facilities and services in spring 2020 that were not provided in whole or in part. A federal district court in New York denied a fo...
The only accommodation the nurse would accept—complete exemption from field visits—was unreasonable under the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. A discharged employee of a home health care agency, who had refused to perform field visits on accou...
The GM, who was considered to be legally blind, voluntarily gave up his driver’s license even though driving was part of his job description. Although a legally blind Aaron’s, Inc., general manager produced some evidence that some of the complaints a...
The decisionmaker allegedly put up obstacles to the employee being hired, paid her less than her male peers, prevented her from going on a “men-only” training trip, and didn’t follow the progressive discipline policy. A jury will decide whether a fam...
Despite the conduct in question being inappropriate, the court found the alleged harassment was not severe or pervasive enough to overcome the employer’s motion for summary judgment. In an unpublished opinion, the Fourth Circuit affirmed a lower cour...
The employee claimed a school superintendent who was displeased with her efforts to oppose the mask-wearing policy and her critical social media posts conspired with her supervisor to have her suspended and fired. A bank employee who claimed that a s...
The plain language of the RLA did not support the union’s argument that the employer’s purported Section 6 notice was merely a counterproposal to the union’s still-ongoing notice. After finding that a union was unlikely to succeed on the merits, a fe...
Municipalities are entitled to a good faith defense to a suit for a refund of mandatory agency fees under Section 1983. In view of the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Danielson v. Inslee , the appeals court concluded that municipalities, as well as union...
A roundup of recent disability discrimination decisions of interest to the labor and employment community. 5th Cir.: Welding inspector fired due to declining performance, market conditions. While a welding inspector in his 60s was on leave due to hea...
The company will also revise its employment advertisements and hiring practices and provide training to employees. SpringShine Consulting, Inc., has agreed to pay $17,000 in civil penalties to the United States to resolve claims that the California-b...
The infractions resulted from practices such as paying flat salaries regardless of hours worked, terminating an employee who inquired about compensation, and failing to pay farm workerwages when due. The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division has separately an...
Those remedies include the cost of baby formula due to the loss of a workplace breast pumping station and the cost of retrofitting a discriminate’s car to make it usable in a new job. In a June 23, 2022, Memorandum (GC 22-06 ), NLRB General Counsel J...
The government contractor will also ensure that its hiring policies and procedures are free from discrimination, and provide training to managers, supervisors, and others who oversee hiring decisions. Under a conciliation agreement, Becton, Dickinson...
Leader empathy was a key determinant in whether employees perceived COVID-19 and racial equity policies to be genuine. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and renewed calls for racial justice, many employers responded with new policies and pronounce...
Labor & Employment Law
The employee alleged he was wrongfully terminated from his employment with the state house of representatives because of his emails advocating for a mask mandate in the Capitol building. Although most of the emails sent by a legislative specialist em...
“[Given the benefits of the statute, it certainly warrants a good look if the potential is there.” California enacted its anti-SLAPP (i.e., Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) statute to provide a procedural remedy early in litigation to...
“The new law intends to restore certain rights that had been eliminated or reduced by the 2017 Labor Transformation and Flexibility Act ("2017 Labor Reform") and, further, to create additional rights for part-timers and students.” On June 20, 2022, G...
The delivery company failed to provide evidence that the program agreements signed did not contain arbitration clauses. The federal district court in Greensboro, North Carolina granted a motion to dismiss and compel arbitration in favor of Amazon Log...
There was some question as to whether the former court crier would fall into the “personal staff” exception found in Title VII’s definition of “employee.” A federal district court in Pennsylvania granted a motion to dismiss to the Montgomery County C...
Short time interval between employee’s complaints to HR and her discharge also raises an inference of retaliatory motive. A county employee, who was released from her probationary employment in a public defender’s office after complaining of unfair t...
The fact that all of the comparator positions had the title of “director” was insufficient, on its own, to conclude that the positions were actually comparable. An employer was granted a motion to dismiss an employee’s claims for failure to promote, ...
She was told that her contract was not being renewed for “competitive reasons,” but male coaches of male teams with worse records were renewed and the decision came at the first renewal following her claim of sexual harassment. Over objections, a fed...
The court anticipated that any findings made in the separately filed earlier action would “narrow and refine the parties’ dispute” in the instant action. A server who joined a wage-and-hour lawsuit in 2019 against a restaurant where he formerly worke...
Because the six-day workweek had not been in effect since 2016, it was unnecessary to order the employer to cease and desist from unilaterally imposing six-day workweeks on unit employees. On remand from the Second Circuit, the NLRB agreed that ADT v...
During a period when the SEC was stepping up enforcement of its whistleblower protection rule, new employees at Brinks were required to sign a confidentiality agreement with no exemptions. The Brinks Company has settled SEC charges that it violated w...
Shortly after the employee engaged in protected activities, the company and its CEO initiated a law enforcement investigation and facilitated the employee’s detainment by ICE, according to OSHA. The Department of Labor is touting a Massachusetts fede...
A recruiting services company and an HVAC contractor settled allegations; new suits were filed against two staffing companies. In recent developments, the EEOC separately settled lawsuits against employers in Idaho and Washington alleging disability ...
The Board expects to issue NPRMs in July on joint-employer status, and in September on election protections in the construction industry. The NLRB has identified two items on its Spring 2022 Agency Rule List : proposed rules on joint-employer status ...
Evidence shows the shadow investigation sought to conceal Snyder’s role in troubling conduct. A memo shared with the House Committee on Oversight and Reform by Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney(D-N.Y.) details findings from the Committee’s investigation ...
Labor & Employment Law
However, a grant recipient employee’s claim was not protected because the court adopted an interpretation of what constitutes a “reasonable belief” and “gross mismanagement” from cases interpreting the WPA. An Atlanta Housing Authority attorney who w...
“Notably, by July 1, 2022, all employers in the City will be required to have a policy on sexual harassment.” The City of Chicago ("the City") recently amended its laws on sexual harassment in the workplace. Notably, by July 1, 2022, all employers in...
The governor recently signed into law two bills addressing employee leave. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker recently signed into law two bills addressing employee leave. The Family Bereavement Leave Act (FBLA) provides eligible employees with unpaid tim...
The African-American nursing home employee’s federal and state race-based claims, however, were dismissed on summary judgment. Although a Black RN, who was fired for disciplinary infractions after only four months on the job, failed to convince a fed...
Program’s premium structure did not violate restraints on the state’s income tax law. A premium collected from employers and employees to fund a state-run paid family and medical leave program did not violate a provision of Colorado’s constitution th...
The employee failed to show that the actions of her employer in imposing a vaccine mandate were equivalent to government or state action. Claims that an employer violated federal and statute constitutions and statutes by requiring an employee to be v...
A brokerage firm was unable to establish likelihood of success on the merits in a trade secret dispute when it could not show that the documents allegedly transferred contained any trade secrets. An insurance brokerage firm was not entitled to a prel...
When determining damages, the jury based its award, in part, on the employer’s estimated lost revenue, not his estimated lost profits. Finding $11 million in damages in a defamation case excessive, the Iowa Supreme Court granted remittitur to the dam...
At issue was whether the power company violated the OSHA standard when its employees responded to an ammonia release without first donning specified protective gear. Because the release of ammonia at a Tampa Electric Company plant was not “uncontroll...
In view of the FMCSA’s use of language suggesting prospective application only, and its failure to expressly extend its decision to pending claims, meant that the preemption decision did not apply to bar claims arising from conduct that occurred prio...
The city adopted a payroll expense tax on certain entities engaged in doing business in Seattle in response to a homelessness emergency and loss of revenue due to COVID-19. A Washington Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court’s grant of summary judgm...
Though he argued that he must have suffered “professional damage by the dissemination of false allegations of sexual harassment,” he failed to present any evidence of an actual reputational injury. A university professor did not defame a postdoctoral...
The principles help create a shared vision of job quality among employers, labor unions, and governments. The “Good Jobs Principles,” released by the Departments of Labor and Commerce, provides employers, workers, federal agencies, state and local go...
The infractions resulted from practices such as paying flat salaries, terminating an employee after denying FMLA leave, using tips to pay other employees’ wages, and endangering minor-age workers. The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division has separately annou...
The DOL’s Spring 2022 Rule List also anticipates a final rule, Update to the Hazard Communication Standard, in December 2022. The Department of Labor’s Spring 2022 Agency Rule List, posted on June 21, represents actions that complement its “Good Jobs...
Verified stockholder derivative complaint filed by a shareholder alleges that a toxic culture of racism and sexual harassment pervades the Tesla workplace and exposes the company to federal and state law liability, while tolerated by board. A Tesla, ...
After seven union activists were allegedly fired at five different stores over the course of six weeks, regional director is seeking reinstatement and a bargaining order. On June 21, the NLRB’s Region 3-Buffalo Regional Director petitioned a federal ...
Labor & Employment Law
The plant manager allegedly trivialized his coworkers’ daily ageist insults, interference, and vulgar graffiti as mere “horseplay,” did not warn them of repercussions if their harassment persisted, and did not monitor the situation to ensure that it ...
“Arnold & Porter attorneys explain what employers need to understand about new guidance from the EEOC and the Justice Department on avoiding disability discrimination when using these tools and look at enforcement trends in the states and abroad.” Ma...
“The First Circuit Court of Appeals recently decided whether COVID related layoffs qualify as a ‘natural disaster’ under the WARN Act. As manufacturing employers are well aware, the COVID pandemic has forced many employers to furlough or layoff emplo...
The premises technician argued that the employer’s written guidelines governing meal and rest breaks presented predominantly common issues, despite a diverse application of the guidelines in practice. A California appellate court reversed a trial cou...
Even if an agreement settling discrimination claims was voidable because the employee did not sign it knowingly or voluntarily, the employee’s failure to tender back consideration received for almost four years constituted ratification of the agreeme...
The car dealership employee failed to show she could have performed her job’s essential functions with reasonable accommodations. Not only were the accommodations requested by a narcoleptic car dealership service advisor— including working virtually ...
“It is clear beyond any reasonable debate that a noose is severe physically and mentally threatening for anyone,” the court stated, “especially for African-Americans.” A longtime employee of the Nashville Electric Service (NES) will have the opportun...
Although the court found the employee was wrongly denied paid leave under the FFCRA, the employer’s reliance on a since vacated definition of medical provider meant it was immunized under the Portal-to-Portal Act. A federal district court in Indiana ...
The discovery compelled by the trial court was insufficiently narrowed and was overly broad in scope. Conditionally granting mandamus relief to UPS Ground Freight in a wrongful death suit arising out of a fatal multi-vehicle collision involving a UPS...
The Court concluded that a group health plan that provides limited benefits for outpatient dialysis, but does so uniformly for all plan participants, does not violate the Medicare Secondary Payer statute. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a health plan...
No liberty interest was at stake given that the captain was not forced to obtain the vaccine and at this point does not face court martial. A federal district court in the District of Columbia denied a preliminary injunction to an Air Force captain w...
The law violated the Supremacy Clause since it “explicitly treats federal workers differently than state or private workers, and imposes costs upon the Federal Government that state and private entities do not bear,” and federal immunity was not waiv...
The position the airline offered to the employee in Flight Operations on October 22, which he initially rejected, was equivalent to his escalator position as a line pilot. Following remand to recalculate damages for an American Airlines pilot whose r...
In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the new union urged cooperation and collaboration. More than 100 employees of an Apple store in Towson, Maryland, who had recently organized into the Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (CORE), overwhelmingly vo...
Former TESLA employees have filed a putative class action against the car manufacturer alleging violation of the WARN Act stemming from recent mass layoffs. According to a complaint filed in the Western District of Texas by two former Tesla employees...
In its Saxon opinion, the petitioner contends, the Court left open a question regarding classes of workers who carry out duties removed from actual border crossings, and it argued that this petition offers the perfect opportunity to address it. In a ...
Labor & Employment Law
She informed her employer that it owed higher tariffs on certain goods because they were likely from China and alleged she was harassed and fired as a result. After discovering that a product the company had imported had likely come from China, and i...
“You can look at these anti-RTO incidents as aberrations spawned at the tail end of an unprecedented plague year. Or you can see them as pieces of a larger, more sweeping social mosaic,” Dr. Castagnera writes. In this issue, Dr. Castagnera discusses ...
“Control over a drug test as part of the job application process is not control over the performance of the job.” Seyfarth Synopsis: The Ninth Circuit recently concluded that job applicants are not entitled to compensation for time devoted to pre-emp...
However, the Court left open the possibility that California could adjust PAGA to permit representative claims to survive. On June 15, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of Viking River Cruises Inc. in a case over whether it ...
The employer failed to show that an employee’s retaliation claim was so frivolous that an award of attorney fees was appropriate. A federal district court in New York denied an employer’s motion for attorney fees after it dismissed an employee’s clai...
The company president and CEO was fired after telling other employees “Don’t be the last man standing.” Reversing in part the decision of the court below, the Sixth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, found the lower court abused its discretion by ex...
In order to be the determining factor, the protected conduct must be the factor that makes the difference in the employment outcome. A trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of an employer against an employee’s claim for wrongful terminatio...
The employer denied his request to transfer to a less stressful location, citing job performance issues. A manager who worked at a store in a “volatile” inner-city location raised material fact issues on his federal and state law claims of failure to...
Demographic data showing the employer investigated black employees disproportionately to white employees bolstered the employee’s claims. A Black employee who worked for a county public works department defeated summary judgment on his Section 1981 c...
Although the employer contended it took prompt remedial action regarding the employee’s complaint, basing that argument on HR’s response, there remained a factual dispute about whether, during the months the conduct was ongoing, the supervisor knew a...
According to the employee, his employer claimed more employees than it actually had on its PPP application, and it did not spend the PPP funds on payroll expenses. A garbage collection services employee who was fired one day after the company alleged...
There was enough evidence provided by the employer that, if believed, could negate the employee’s claims concerning minimum wage and overtime payments. An employee, who worked as a server at a pizza restaurant, brought this motion for partial summary...
A roundup of recent decisions involving sex discrimination claims of interest to the labor and employment law community. 11th Cir.: HR manager who prevailed at trial to have back pay award reinstated. A female HR manager at a chicken processing plant...
Chair Khan confirmed the agency’s commitment to investigating mergers, acquisitions with a focus on potential harm to workers. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a letter from Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan sent in response t...
The owner compelled the victim’s labor for nearly two years through psychological coercion, debt bondage, and violence. A federal judge in North Carolina has sentenced a 38-year-old Charlotte woman—the owner of a nail salon—to 15 years in prison and ...
A new lawsuit also alleges that the owner/operator of a Columbus, Montana, residential and working ranch facility for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities violated Section 511 requirements. On June 14, the DOL’s Wage and Hour ...
Two Dollar General stores alone account for $580K in proposed penalties. OSHA has separately announced $1,151,660 in proposed penalties and citations for safety violations by employers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Wisconsin, and Ohio. The f...