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After more than a decade of litigation, Apple-Metro Inc., the owner of dozens of Applebees restaurants in the New York City area, agreed to settle minimum wage and overtime claims brought by over 1,000 of its current and former restaurant workers. Despite financial precarity brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, these workers managed to secure a one-million-dollar settlement, as well as a guarantee that, if the company becomes insolvent, they will be able to recover from two of the restaurant owners personally.

National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo dealt another blow to non-compete agreements in the United States on Tuesday, concluding in a memorandum issued to the NLRB’s Regional Director that most non-compete agreements violate federal labor laws.

On January 13, 2023, Fresh Del Monte Produce, Inc. discovered that its network had been subject to unauthorized activity and began investigating. Fresh Del Monte finished its investigation on April 25, 2023, and determined that its employees’ personal information may have been compromised

On May 15, 2023, Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed a bill that protects rideshare drivers’ right to paid family and medical leave into a law. The new law requires companies like Uber and Lyft to provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave for a medical event or birth of a child.

On May 11, 2023, the New York City Council passed a bill prohibiting discrimination on the basis of one’s height and weight in housing, employment, and in public places. The bill will add weight and height as protected categories under the New York City Human Rights Law.

On April 24, 2023, a former employee of Specialty Minerals, Inc., filed suit in Connecticut for wrongful termination, alleging that his employer had fired him for his legal, off-duty medical marijuana use. Click here to view the complaint.Per the complaint, the employee uses marijuana to alleviate symptoms of PTSD and as a sleep aid and did not report to work under the influence of marijuana

After nearly 13 years of litigation, Goldman Sachs settled a class action gender discrimination lawsuit for $215 million, divided amongst 2800 women. The bank has faced a long-term class action lawsuit for paying women less than men. The suit was filed in 2010 and was set to go to trial in July of this year.

On May 12, 2023, McGillivary Steele Elkin LLP filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the United States Supreme Court to appeal a wrongly decided ruling that denied hazardous duty pay to the brave men and women serving as federal correctional officers who worked with COVID infected inmates, without the benefit of vaccines or protective gear during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.

On May 9, 2023, a federal jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania awarded back wages of more than $22 million based on claims that the East Penn Manufacturing Company, Inc., one of the world’s largest battery manufacturers, failed to provide overtime pay to 7,500 workers for all their work hours.

There are few jobs where workers can stroll in, sit down, and begin working. Either because of time constraints or tasks that workers must complete to properly do their jobs, many workers come in early, stay late, and are not compensated for that time. The Portal-to-Portal Act, which celebrates its 76th anniversary on May 14th, may mandate compensation for much of that work.