Wage & Hour

  • February 14, 2025

    9th Circ. Told DOL Can't Shield Contractor Demographic Data

    The Center for Investigative Reporting told the Ninth Circuit on Friday that federal contractors' workforce demographic reports were not protected by a commercial data exemption to the Freedom of Information Act, as there was no "intimate information" in those reports.

  • February 14, 2025

    House Dems Question Rationale For OSHA Guidance Purge

    Democratic members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce demanded Friday that the U.S. Department of Labor provide details about why certain worker safety documents were removed from the federal government's website, saying some information seems to have been arbitrarily removed because it referenced "diversity" or "gender."

  • February 14, 2025

    Judge Needs Time To Mull Block On DOGE's Agency Audits

    A Washington, D.C., federal judge said Friday he plans to rule "promptly" on a request by worker and consumer advocates to stop the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing three federal agencies' data but couldn't say when following a wide-ranging hearing on the bid.

  • February 14, 2025

    Care Co. Wants Full 3rd Circ. Review Of $7M Travel Pay Row

    A Third Circuit panel's decision in a U.S. Department of Labor suit that a home health agency needed to pay $7 million to home health aides for travel time creates a new, unsupported law, the company said, urging the full court to jump in.

  • February 14, 2025

    Calif. Forecast: $4M Transpo Co. Wage Deal Up For Final OK

    In the coming week, attorneys should keep an eye out for the final approval of a $4 million deal in a wage and hour class action involving transportation company CRST. Here's a look at that case and other labor and employment matters coming up in California.

  • February 14, 2025

    Construction Groups, DOL Want Pause In DBA Rule Fight

    A challenge to the U.S. Department of Labor's final rule updating the math for Davis-Bacon Act prevailing wages needs to be paused while the department's top brass catches up on the litigation, the DOL and the groups suing told a Texas federal court Friday.

  • February 14, 2025

    Defunct Media Co. Agrees To Resolve WARN Act Class Action

    Former digital media startup The Messenger has struck a deal to end a class action alleging it failed to give hundreds of workers enough notice about its impending layoffs and shutdown, the company told a New York federal court.

  • February 14, 2025

    Asset Manager Fiera Broke Bonus Promises, Ex-Exec Says

    A Massachusetts portfolio manager says Fiera Capital Inc. lured him to the asset management firm with promises he could earn up to $850,000 a year, then sidelined him so he was unable to qualify for bonuses and forced him out a year later.

  • February 14, 2025

    NY Forecast: 2nd Circ. Weighs Renewing Firm's Bias Suit

    This week the Second Circuit is to consider whether to revive a lawsuit brought by a former senior vice president at a global investment firm claiming it discriminated against him due to his race and religion and gave him false poor performance reviews before firing him.

  • February 14, 2025

    DOJ Takes Military Bias Dispute With Nev. To 9th Circ.

    The U.S. Department of Justice said it will appeal to the Ninth Circuit after a federal judge tossed its suit accusing the state of Nevada and its public employees retirement system of overcharging service members for pension credits.

  • February 13, 2025

    Wash. Justices Wary Of Pay Transparency Law Stances

    Washington's highest court grilled attorneys on both sides of a debate over state pay transparency law on Thursday, with some justices suggesting the employer's stance put too much onus on workers while another expressed doubt the protections should extend to people who apply for jobs they have no chance to get.

  • February 13, 2025

    Judge Extends Restraining Order On USAID Gutting

    A D.C. federal judge extended his temporary restraining order barring USAID from placing thousands of employees on administrative leave for another week on Thursday, saying he needed more time to rule on the plaintiff employees unions' preliminary injunction request to stop the agency's overhaul while the case proceeds.

  • February 13, 2025

    Paving Co., Workers Ink $370K Prevailing Wage Deal

    A paving company told a D.C. federal court Thursday that it has agreed to shell out $370,000 to 34 workers who claimed they were paid below the prevailing wage while working on public works projects.

  • February 13, 2025

    Distributor's Individual Misclassification Claims Stay In Court

    The work that a Flowers Foods distributor performed was part of an uninterrupted stream of interstate commerce, an Oregon federal judge said, keeping in court the worker's individual claims that he was misclassified as an independent contractor but tossing the class and collective ones.

  • February 13, 2025

    Minn. Trade Groups Want Worker Classification Law Blocked

    Construction trade organizations urged a Minnesota federal court Thursday to block a state law from taking effect that would slap steep fines on companies that misclassify employees as independent contractors, saying the statute's accompanying 14-prong test to determine worker classification is too ambiguous to stand.

  • February 13, 2025

    Landscape Workers Seek Sanctions Over Lacking Class Lists

    U.S. citizens and H-2B landscape workers have called on a Kansas federal judge to sanction a company accused of cheating them out of overtime pay, saying it supplied "woefully incomplete" class lists that were not in compliance with court orders.

  • February 13, 2025

    Ex-Labor Dept. Solicitor Joins DC Employment Boutique

    A former deputy associate solicitor for the U.S. Department of Labor has joined a D.C. employment boutique as of counsel, the firm announced this week.

  • February 13, 2025

    Telehealth Cos. Strike Deal To End Manager's Unpaid OT Suit

    A Florida federal judge signed off Thursday on a nearly $15,000 settlement that resolves a former manager's lawsuit accusing two telehealth companies of misclassifying her as overtime-exempt and causing her to lose out on extra wages.

  • February 13, 2025

    Amazon Worker's $1.6M Fee Bid Slashed In Military Bias Suit

    A Washington federal judge awarded an Amazon worker a fraction of the $1.6 million in attorney fees he requested in his recently settled suit claiming the company blocked him from promotions due to his military service, finding the outcome of the case didn't warrant an amount that high.

  • February 13, 2025

    Security Officer Ends Breaks Suit Against Hospital System

    A security officer agreed to drop her proposed class and collective suit accusing a hospital system of automatically deducting unpaid but never taken lunch breaks from pay, she told a Kentucky federal court.

  • February 13, 2025

    Ex-DraftKings Engineer Wants Parental Leave Suit Kept In Play

    A former DraftKings engineer asked a Massachusetts federal court not to toss his suit accusing the company of firing him the day after he asked to take parental leave, saying he can benefit from a Massachusetts paid leave law despite living in Wisconsin.

  • February 12, 2025

    Unions Beef Up Suit To Keep DOGE Out Of Federal Agencies

    Unions and nonprofits seeking to stop Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency from accessing the U.S. Department of Labor's data have enhanced their injunction request, looking also to shield the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's and Department of Health and Human Services' data and prove they have standing to sue.

  • February 12, 2025

    Foley Hoag Must Face Bulk Of Worker's Bias, Wage Suit

    A New York federal judge largely denied Foley Hoag LLP's bid to partially escape a Moldovan former employee's lawsuit, saying Wednesday he put forward enough information to back up his claims that the firm discriminated against him because of his Russian heritage and disability.

  • February 12, 2025

    Nike Asks 9th Circ. To Claw Back Workplace Harassment Docs

    A lawyer for Nike urged a Ninth Circuit panel on Wednesday to block an Oregon local newspaper from publishing workplace harassment questionnaires provided by plaintiffs' attorney in pay equity litigation against the athletic apparel giant.

  • February 12, 2025

    Trump Admin Says NIL Payments Don't Have To Follow Title IX

    The U.S. Department of Education on Wednesday rescinded a directive for name, image and likeness compensation for athletes to not discriminate against women under Title IX guidelines, calling the guidance enacted in the final days of the Biden administration "overly burdensome" and "profoundly unfair.''

Expert Analysis

  • What Justices' FLSA Ruling Means For 2-Step Collective Cert.

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in EMD Sales v. Carrera may have sounded the death knell for the decades-old two-step process to certify collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which could lead more circuits to require a preponderance of the evidence showing that members are similarly situated, says Steven Katz at Constangy.

  • The Future Of ALJs At NLRB And DOL Post-Jarkesy

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    In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 Jarkesy ruling, several ongoing challenges to the constitutionality of the U.S. Department of Labor's and the National Labor Relations Board's administrative law judges have the potential to significantly shape the future of administrative tribunals, say attorneys at Wiley Rein.

  • Preparing For A Possible End To The Subminimum Wage

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    The U.S. Department of Labor's proposed rule to end the subminimum wage for employees with disabilities may significantly affect the community-based rehabilitation and training programs that employ these workers, so certified programs should be especially vigilant about compliance during this period of evaluation and scrutiny, say attorneys at Jackson Lewis.

  • Water Cooler Talk: 'Harry Potter' Reveals Magic Of Feedback

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    Troutman Pepper's Tracey Diamond and Emily Schifter chat with Wicker Park Group partner Tara Weintritt about various feedback methods used by "Harry Potter" characters — from Snape's sharp and cutting remarks to Dumbledore's lack of specificity and Hermione's poor delivery — and explore how clear, consistent and actionable feedback can transform workplaces.

  • What To Expect From Trump's Deputy Labor Secretary Pick

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    President Donald Trump's nominee for deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor, Keith Sonderling, has a track record of prioritizing clear guidance on both traditional and cutting-edge issues, which can provide insight into what employers can expect from his leadership, say attorneys at Littler.

  • Discretionary Compensation Lessons From 7th Circ. Ruling

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    The Seventh Circuit’s recent ruling in Das v. Tata established that contract disclaimers don't automatically bar claims under the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act, underscoring the limits of compensation systems that purport to grant employers unilateral discretion, say attorneys at Schoenberg Finkel.

  • What's Next After Justices Clarify FLSA Evidence Standard

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in EMD Sales v. Carrera makes it easier to claim employees are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime requirements, and eliminates inconsistency and unpredictability for employers operating in multiple jurisdictions, say attorneys at Bracewell.

  • 4 Employment Law Areas Set To Change Under Trump

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    President Donald Trump's second term is expected to bring significant changes to the U.S. employment law landscape, including the potential for updated worker classification regulations, and challenges to diversity, equity and inclusion that are already taking shape, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • 8 Lessons Yellow Corp. Layoffs Can Teach Distressed Cos.

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    A Delaware bankruptcy court’s recent decision, examining trucking company Yellow Corp.’s abrupt termination of roughly 25,500 employees, offers financially distressed businesses a road map for navigating layoffs under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

  • The 7th Circ.'s Top 10 Civil Opinions Of 2024

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    Attorneys at Jenner & Block examine the most significant decisions issued by the Seventh Circuit in 2024, and explain how they may affect issues related to mass arbitration, consumer fraud, class certification and more.

  • 10 Key Worker-Friendly California Employment Law Updates

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    New employment laws in California expand employee rights, transparency and enforcement mechanisms, and failing to educate department managers on these changes could put employers at risk, says Melanie Ronen at Stradley Ronon.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: Nov. And Dec. Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses five federal court decisions and identifies practice tips from cases involving takings clause violations, breach of contract with banks, life insurance policies, employment and automobile defects.

  • How PAGA Reform Can Inform Employer Strategies In 2025

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    While recent changes to California's Private Attorneys General Act will not significantly reduce PAGA claims, employers can use the new law to potentially limit their future exposure, by taking advantage of penalty reduction opportunities and more, say attorneys at Thompson Coburn.