Workers at the Mesa, AZ Starbucks, located at Powers and Baseline Roads, overwhelmingly voted to unionize, choosing Workers United, which is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, as its collective bargaining representative. The 25-3 vote in favor of unionizing came after Starbucks’ objections delayed an initial vote in February. The Mesa location is the third unionized Starbucks store in the Read More

A split panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Walt Disney Co. does not owe severance pay to a terminated former worker after she became unable to work following a stroke. The court found that since Nancy Soto’s termination did not fall within the definition of a “layoff,” Disney did not violate ERISA when it denied her a severance payment.  As a result, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Read More

A California federal district court granted summary judgment to Hyatt Corporation against a class of former employees who alleged that they were entitled to accrued vacation time from Hyatt after Hyatt laid them off, indefinitely, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The judge found that by laying the employees off rather than terminating them, Hyatt had not severed the employer-employee relationship, and therefore Read More

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Ranew’s Management Co. Inc., a Georgia industrial company, reached a consent decree in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Ranew's Management Co. Inc. et al., case number 5:21-cv-00443, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. The decree provides that the company will pay J. Bryant Beeland, a former chief financial officer, $250,000, Read More

Based on a lack of standing, a California federal district court dismissed a former Taco Bell recruiter's suit against the popular chain restaurant and its parent company, Yum Brands. The former recruiter had alleged that the companies had violated ERISA by intentionally misclassifying him as an independent contractor to deny him access to employee benefits, including the employee pension plan. U.S. District Judge Read More

A panel of the Fifth Circuit affirmed a Texas federal court decision to dismiss a Texas personal injury law firm’s $2.1 million referral fee lawsuit against an Ohio law firm. The Fifth Circuit agreed with Ohio law firm Morgan Verkamp that its reply to one unsolicited email from the Texas law firm of Danziger & De Llano did not create sufficient connections to subject it to Texas law. The case is Danziger & De Read More

A D.C. federal district court judge has dismissed the claims of Louisiana crawfish peelers who filed suit over a wage determination rule concerning the H-2B guest worker program. They claim that they have experienced decreases in their pay rates because the rule allows employers to submit their prevailing wage data instead of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). However, the judge did permit the Read More

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a lower court ruling that C&S Wholesaler Grocers, Inc. (C&S) was not responsible for a $58 million payment to a Teamsters pension fund. A unanimous three-judge panel of the court noted that an ERISA provision could make a successor liable for pension payments in some circumstances. However, the panel concluded that the provision did not apply in the case Read More

The U.S. House of Representatives Oversight and Reform Committee held a two-hour roundtable discussion on February 3, 2022, with six former Washington Football Team (WTF) employees concerning sexual harassment and workplace misconduct claims under the team's owner Dan Snyder. An attorney for Snyder has categorically denied the accusations by former employees, some of which arose for the first time during the Read More

A U.S. magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey granted the defendant’s request that Superior Court Judge Deborah M. Gross-Quatrone undergo an independent medical exam (IME) in her workplace discrimination claims against Bergen County Superior Court officials. The case is Deborah Gross-Quatrone v. Bonnie Mizdol et al., case number 2:17-cv-13111, U.S. District Court for the District Read More