On June 12, 2023, The Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the 2022 decision of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey to certify a class of drivers in a wage and hour suit against Sleepy’s LLC (“Defendant” or “Sleepy’s” or the “Company”), rejecting Sleepy’s argument that drivers’ misclassification claims require individualized inquiry to determine whether each class member was an employee or an independent contractor. The Third…
On March 17, 2023, a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals delivered the latest in a series of decisions on California Assembly Bill 5 (“A.B. 5”), ruling that the United States District Court for the Central District of California had erred in dismissing equal protection claims filed by Uber Technologies, Inc. and Postmates, Inc. (together, “Plaintiffs”) against the State of California and the California Attorney General (together, “Defendants”).…
On February 8, 2023, A Place for Rover, Inc. (“Rover” or the “Company”) agreed to pay $18 million to resolve allegations that the Company unlawfully misclassified its hourly workers as independent contractors in order to skirt certain minimum wage and benefit laws. Rover is an app-based platform where users can connect with and book dog sitters or walkers. The Rover app includes dog boarding, dog walking, house sitting and doggy…
On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) unveiled a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) that would ban virtually all employment-related non-compete agreements (“NCAs”) on the ground that such agreements are an “unfair method of competition,” thereby violating Section 5 of the FTC Act. Non-compete agreements are clauses in employment contracts that prohibit employees from working for competing companies for a defined period following the employee’s departure from the contracting…
On November 4, 2022, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that for the purposes of the Fair Labor Stands Act (“FLSA”), Los Angeles County (the “County”) qualifies as a joint employer of In-Home Supportive Services (“IHSS”) providers and is therefore liable for failing to pay overtime compensation, partially reversing the Central District of California’s summary judgment order in favor of the…
On November 3, 2022, Emmanuel Cornet, Justine De Caires, Grae Kindel, Alexis Camacho, and Jessica Pan (collectively, “Plaintiffs”), individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, filed a Class Action Complaint against Defendant Twitter, Inc. (“Twitter”), in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Plaintiffs, all of whom are former employees of Twitter, allege that the company violated and will further violate the federal Worker…
On October 31, 2022, United States District Judge Mark Kearney of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania approved a $12.5 million settlement of class action claims alleging that Universal Health Services, Inc. (“Universal” or the “Company”) mismanaged its defined contribution retirement plan (the “Plan”). Plaintiffs, former Universal employees Mary Boley, Kandie Sutter, and Phyllis Johnson (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) specifically alleged that the Company mismanaged the Plan by incorporating excessive fees and risky,…
On August 3, 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed a Wisconsin federal court’s dismissal of a truck driver’s misclassification claims against hauling company Schneider National Inc. (“Schneider” or “the Company”). The Seventh Circuit found that driver Eric Brant (“Plaintiff”) plausibly alleged a viable claim under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), a federal law that protects workers from unfair employment practices by establishing requirements…
On December 5, 2022, the Illinois State Board of Elections certified the November election results in favor of adding the proposed Amendment 1 to the Illinois State Constitution. It is now a constitutionally protected right for workers in Illinois to organize and bargain collectively for the purposes of negotiating wages, hours, or working conditions, and to protect their economic welfare and safety at work, effectively making Illinois the first state…
On November 10, 2022, the Ninth Circuit denied the request of Jan-Pro Franchising International Inc. (“Jan-Pro”) to review the United States District Court for the Northern District of California’s August 2, 2022 order granting a group of janitors class action certification in a lawsuit alleging Jan-Pro misclassified its janitors as independent contractors. The action began in 2008 when a group of janitors sued Jan-Pro in Massachusetts federal court. After the…