A person's hand picks up a wooden block depicting an employee from a line of similar blocks.

Feds' Shift Doesn't Remove Disparate Impact Risk From RIFs

The Trump administration has disclaimed disparate impact — a theory of liability that is often at the heart of bias claims arising from reductions-in-force — but employers still face legal jeopardy if reductions-in-force have an outsized impact on protected groups, attorneys say.

Future Of NJ's ABC Test Unclear Amid New Governor's Freeze

New Jersey employers should follow the state's ABC test for independent contractor classification that comes from case law while the new governor decides how to proceed with a rule her predecessor proposed to codify that test, attorneys said.

A rocket launches into the air from a space center facility.

Mediation Board's Memo Shifts SpaceX's Labor Landscape

The National Mediation Board's recent ruling that SpaceX falls within its jurisdiction is poised to end a National Labor Relations Board case challenging the firings of workers who criticized CEO Elon Musk, though it opens the company to different — and potentially costly — legal woes.

Expert Analysis

Ambiguity Remains On Anti-DEI Grant Conditions

Valecia McDowell and Tanisha Palvia

Although a recent decision in City of Chicago and City of Saint Paul v. U.S. Department of Justice temporarily hal... (more story)

What To Know As Courts Rethink McDonnell-Douglas

Stephanie Adler-Paindiris, Carolyn Burnette and Ana Shields

Although the U.S. Supreme Court declined the latest opportunity to address the viability of the McDonnell-Douglas ... (more story)

Limiting Worker Surveillance Risks Amid AI Regulatory Shifts

Liz Aloi and Carrie Cohen

With workplace surveillance tools becoming increasingly common and a recent executive order aiming to preempt stat... (more story)

Labor More

NLRB Official Approves Vote For Calif. Hospital Housekeepers

A group of environmental services employees at a California hospital can vote on whether to join a bargaining unit represented by Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, a Nationa... (more story)

Verizon Escapes Fired Worker's Suit Over Racial Slur

A New York federal judge tossed Friday a white former Verizon worker's suit claiming he was discriminated against after he was fired for saying a racial slur on a lunch break, ruling his remaining claims are b... (more story)

Headquarters building with company sign, with a parking deck and a steel skyscraper in background
NLRB Attorneys Target Kinder Morgan Precedent At 9th Circ.

The Ninth Circuit should walk back a six-year-old decision that gave unions a tool to complicate interunion disputes over what work their members perform, National Labor Relations Board prosecutors said, urgin... (more story)

NLRB Attys Seek Broader Ruling In Movie Firing Suit

National Labor Relations Board prosecutors sought to expand on an NLRB judge's decision finding that a film production company illegally fired a script supervisor over her union activity, telling the board Fri... (more story)

NY Forecast: Home Aides Ask For Preliminary OK Of $6M Deal

This week, a New York federal magistrate judge will consider granting preliminary approval to a $6 million class action settlement resolving allegations from home health aides who claimed a provider did not pa... (more story)

Boston Globe Accused Of Skipping Pension Fund Payments

A union pension fund has filed a lawsuit against the Boston Globe in D.C. federal court, accusing the news organization of failing to pay monthly contributions and provide records of the hours employees worked.

Calif. Forecast: 9th Circ. To Hear Utility District Bias Args

In the coming week, attorneys should watch for Ninth Circuit oral arguments in a discrimination case against a utility district. Here's a look at that case and other labor and employment matters on deck in California.

Discrimination More

4th Circ. Says Trump Anti-DEI Orders Are Constitutional

The Fourth Circuit on Friday lifted a block on President Donald Trump's executive orders that terminated federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs and aimed to encourage government contractors to do the... (more story)

Ousted Conn. Public Defender Chief Loses Bias Suit

The commission responsible for Connecticut's public defenders did not violate TaShun Bowden-Lewis' constitutional or legal rights when it removed her as chief of the office in 2024, a state Superior Court judg... (more story)

Photo illustration of a panel filled with words, dominated overall by "Harassment" in red capital letters
11th Circ. Says Alleged Slurs Back Worker's Harassment Suit

A split Eleventh Circuit panel on Friday reinstated a Black truck salesman's harassment suit claiming a supervisor called him "boy" and that his colleagues regularly called nonwhite customers racial slurs, rul... (more story)

Paymentus Settles Fintech Atty's Age Bias Suit Ahead Of Trial

Billing company Paymentus Corp. has settled a former in-house attorney's retaliation, age discrimination and wrongful discharge lawsuit less than two weeks before the case was set to go to trial, court records show.

Tesla Applicants Fight Uphill To Keep H-1B Visa Bias Suit Alive

A California federal judge appeared open Thursday to tossing a proposed class action alleging Tesla discriminates against American workers by favoring allegedly underpaid H-1B visa holders, telling counsel rep... (more story)

Colo. Judge Hears Closings In Gender-Affirming Care Halt Suit

Patients of Children's Hospital Colorado who want a state court to reinstate their gender-affirming medical care told a judge Thursday that the court's enforcement of state law and the rule of law is their onl... (more story)

Texas Atty Must Explain AI 'Misuse' In Employment Case

A prominent civil rights attorney representing a University of Texas at Austin nurse in an employment discrimination case must explain why he shouldn't be sanctioned "for his apparent misuse of artificial inte... (more story)

Wage & Hour More

Ex-President Accuses Physician AI Co. Of Fraud, Wage Theft

A data science platform and its top brass persuaded its former chief strategy officer and president to invest $750,000 in the business, only then to not pay him wages, the former employee told a North Carolina... (more story)

NC Restaurants Say They Didn't 'Keep' Tips In DOL Wage Suit

Two North Carolina restaurants urged a federal court Friday to narrow a U.S. Department of Labor lawsuit alleging they unlawfully kept and pooled tips from front-of-house workers and allocated the funds to tip... (more story)

An outdoor corporate sign with blue lettering on a white background with an office building slightly visible in the background.
Elevance Fights Nurses' '11th Hour' Class Expansion

Health insurer Elevance told a North Carolina federal court that it should deny a former nurse's attempt to expand a class definition in her overtime-exempt misclassification lawsuit, arguing that the reworked... (more story)

FLSA Does Not Bar Claim Waivers, Wash. Judge Says

The Fair Labor Standards Act does not categorically bar a contract's release of an employee's claims, a Washington federal judge ruled, finding that a former pharmaceutical manufacturing company worker's sever... (more story)

DOL Must Pay Retaliation Suit Atty Fees, Farm HR Head Says

The U.S. Department of Labor should pay attorney fees and expenses that a human resources manager at a Tennessee pork farm incurred to defend the agency's retaliation suit, the manager told a federal court Thu... (more story)

Red Lobster Wants Worker's Wage Suit Sent To Arbitration

A Red Lobster worker must pursue her Illinois wage claims in arbitration rather than federal court because she agreed to arbitrate employment disputes when she was rehired, the restaurant chain said Thursday.

Aircraft Service Co. Denied OT, Full Pay, Ex-Worker Tells Court

An aircraft services company stiffed workers on overtime and pay for all hours worked, a former employee alleged in a proposed collective action complaint filed in Texas federal court.