A California federal district court judge has given final approval to a $24 million deal that settles a pay equity class action between the U.S. women’s national soccer team and the U.S. Soccer Federation Inc. The judge had preliminarily approved the settlement in August. The court still will consider whether the $6.6 million in attorney’s fees for the team’s lawyers
Packaging Corporation of America Central Corrugated LLC (PCA) and Schwarz Partners LP, which owned a paper manufacturing plant in California, has agreed to pay $385,000 and implement corrective measures to remedy racial harassment in the plant. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed the lawsuit against the plant owners after two Black workers complained of racial harassment, including the
An Illinois federal district court has ruled that AutoZone may have violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in establishing a no-fault points-based attendance policy, despite its exceptions for absences related to disability. More specifically, in denying most of the employer’s summary judgment motion, the judge found that the AutoZone policy might have violated the employees’ right to reasonable accommodations
The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), the benefits arm of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), recently announced that it had collected $1.4 billion in federal benefits law enforcement recoveries during the fiscal year 2022. This sum represents the lowest amount that EBSA has collected in the past five years. EBSA’s 2022 recovery amount is a decrease of about
Circle K Stores Inc. has agreed to pay $8 million and comply with the terms of a four-year settlement with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) amid charges that it failed to offer reasonable accommodations to and retaliated against disabled and pregnant workers. An EEOC investigation found that the company had placed affected employees on involuntary unpaid leave, retaliated against
The Maryland state legislature has enacted two bills that may make it harder for employers to defend against harassment claims. The two employee-friendly bills, which took effect on October 1, 2022, lowered the legal standard required to establish a harassment claim and extended the period during which a person may file a civil action alleging an unlawful employment practice.
Senate
The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard arguments in two college affirmative action cases. In both cases, Students for Fair Admissions, a nonprofit group, argues that affirmative action policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina unfairly favor Black, Hispanic, and Native American applicants over white and Asian American applicants. The implications of the high Court’s decisions in these
Among the subjects contributing to the top legal issues employers faced in 2022 were COVID-19 vaccination requirements, a potentially new overtime rule from DOL, the economic downturn, new state laws, and post-Dobbs abortion access for employees.
COVID-19 Vaccination Requirements
Employers became uncertain of their legal options when some employees refused to get COVID-19 vaccinations. As a result, the EEOC
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has given the green light for an assembly line worker’s Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) claim to proceed despite using Facebook Messenger to communicate his notice of leave to his employer. The case is Roberts v. Gestamp West Virginia LLC, 4th Cir., No. 20-2202 (Aug. 15, 2022).
Roberts worked on an assembly
Instacart has agreed to settle a suit covering about 308,000 workers whom the company misclassified as independent contractors in violation of California’s labor code for a total of $46.5 million. The affected individuals worked for the grocery delivery service as “shoppers” between September 2015 and December 2020. The case is The People of the State of California v. Maplebear Inc.