United States: Employment Litigation/ Tribunals

A federal court in Ohio granted conditional certification of a collective action challenging an employer's time-rounding practices, finding that workers across multiple positions and facilities were subject to the same non-neutral rounding policy that allegedly resulted in overtime violations. The court determined that representative evidence, including expert testimony showing the rounding practices worked against employees nearly 80 percent of the time, was sufficient to demonstrate that putative collecti

The U.S. Supreme Court's decisions in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services and Muldrow v. City of St. Louis have clarified critical standards for employment discrimination claims under Title VII. How should employers adjust their HR practices to ensure compliance with these rulings, and what documentation strategies can best protect against discrimination and retaliation claims?

A Missouri federal district court judge dismissed a proposed class action lawsuit by a former partner at Husch Blackwell LLP alleging mismanagement and the illegal withholding of contributions to the firm’s 401(k) plan. The judge based his ruling on the plaintiff’s inability to show that year-end profit-sharing contributions were plan assets before the firm deposited them into his plan account, which left him unable to prove any violations of federal benefits law.

Noncompete agreements face a fractured legal landscape as states diverge sharply on enforcement rules following the collapse of the FTC's federal ban. From mobility-first prohibitions to pro-enforcement regimes with four-year terms, employers must now navigate compensation thresholds, industry-specific carve-outs, and functional definitions that treat forfeiture clauses as de facto noncompetes. What does this patchwork mean for multistate workforce strategies?

LGBTQ+ employees continue to face workplace discrimination through both overt bias and subtle exclusion that limits career advancement. From misgendering and social isolation to retaliation after reporting concerns, these patterns of discrimination remain prevalent across industries despite legal protections. Understanding how anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination manifests in everyday workplace interactions and knowing your legal rights...

The National Labor Relations Board has reinstated the Wright Line framework for evaluating employee discipline arising from abusive conduct during protected activity, giving employers greater flexibility to enforce workplace conduct standards. This decision marks a significant shift from the union-friendly precedents of recent years and signals the beginning of broader policy changes under the Republican-majority Board.

A federal court in Georgia granted conditional certification of an FLSA collective action involving mortgage underwriters who alleged they were misclassified as exempt employees and denied overtime pay. The decision underscores the lenient evidentiary standard applied at the conditional certification stage and highlights the risks employers face when classifying employees under the FLSA's administrative exemption without demonstrating meaningful discretion in job duties.

A practice that millions of California workers encounter every pay period — having their clock-in and clock-out times rounded to the nearest few minutes — may soon be declared unlawful.

For employers defending claims under the Fair Work Act, the issue is not just that more self-represented applicants are using generative AI (which they are), or that the volume of claims is rising (which it is).