http://employment.law360.com/ The Newswire for Legal Professionals Copyright 2009 Portfolio Media, Inc. en-US http://employment.law360.com/images/headings/logo.gif http://employment.law360.com/ http://employment.law360.com/articles/135319 A federal appeals court has ruled that the federal Rehabilitation Act covers discrimination claims brought by an independent contractor, siding against a medical center that allegedly failed to accommodate an anesthesiologist with sickle cell anemia. http://employment.law360.com/articles/135319 http://employment.law360.com/articles/135410 A federal judge has reinstated allegations that Buffalo, N.Y.'s two major hospital systems violated state labor law by failing to pay employees for work they performed before and after their shifts. http://employment.law360.com/articles/135410 http://employment.law360.com/articles/135343 In an appeal stemming from a $5 million wage-and-hour employment action, a California appeals court has ruled that the class counsel in a class action has a duty to continue serving out its obligations to the class beyond the entry of judgment until all class issues are resolved. http://employment.law360.com/articles/135343 http://employment.law360.com/articles/135388 A federal judge has denied DirecTech Southwest Inc.’s motion for summary judgment in a case brought by former technicians who alleged the company, which provides installation services for DirecTV customers, failed to give them overtime pay. http://employment.law360.com/articles/135388 http://employment.law360.com/articles/135429 After more than three years of litigation and failed mediation efforts, Quest Software Inc. has agreed to pay a class of investors $29.4 million to settle allegations that the company’s stock options backdating artificially inflated stock prices. http://employment.law360.com/articles/135429 http://employment.law360.com/articles/135328 A federal appeals court has cleared the way for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to seek more information about how UPS Inc. handles religious exemptions to its nationwide ban on beards for certain employees. http://employment.law360.com/articles/135328 http://employment.law360.com/articles/135349 A unit of St. Jude Medical Inc. has won a preliminary injunction against a former employee who allegedly stole trade secrets in order to set up a rival medical device company in China, according to attorneys representing St. Jude. http://employment.law360.com/articles/135349 http://employment.law360.com/articles/135293 A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction barring a former employee of Epiq Class Action and Claims Solutions Inc. from competing with Epiq for its clients, finding that a noncompete agreement the employee signed with Epiq likely is valid. http://employment.law360.com/articles/135293 http://employment.law360.com/articles/135273 A federal judge granted prosecutors' request Thursday to dismiss 72 immigration charges against Sholom Rubashkin, the former CEO of Agriprocessors Inc., the kosher slaughterhouse in Iowa that was raided by federal immigration authorities last year. http://employment.law360.com/articles/135273 http://employment.law360.com/articles/135302 A civilian contractor who alleges she was sexually assaulted on two separate occasions while working for Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root Inc. in Iraq has won nearly $3 million in an arbitration against her former employer, though the company has challenged the award. http://employment.law360.com/articles/135302 http://employment.law360.com/articles/135276 Executives at 10 large U.S. companies received $350 million in pay and other compensation in the five years before the government was forced to take over their underfunded employee pension plans, a U.S. Government Accountability Office report has found. http://employment.law360.com/articles/135276 http://employment.law360.com/articles/135156 Former loan officers who claim that Mortgage World Bankers Inc. saved millions in payroll cost — but ran afoul of federal law — by refusing to pay them minimum wage and a premium overtime rate have asked a judge to certify their suit as a collective action. http://employment.law360.com/articles/135156 http://employment.law360.com/articles/135228 Clarification is imminent on a contested $50 million Lloyd's of London insurance policy issued to alleged Ponzi artist R. Allen Stanford and other executives at his Stanford International Bank and related entities, as the insurer has sued for declaratory relief in an effort to avoid funding the accused fraudsters' criminal defense. http://employment.law360.com/articles/135228 http://employment.law360.com/articles/135131 The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has voted to send forward legislation that would extend key spousal benefits to the same-sex domestic partners of current and former federal employees. http://employment.law360.com/articles/135131 http://employment.law360.com/articles/135199 A federal appeals court has rejected a plaintiff's bid to overturn a district court’s decision that AT&T Inc. did not illegally reduce workers' pension benefits by applying a preretirement mortality discount to her lump sum retirement benefits payout. http://employment.law360.com/articles/135199 http://employment.law360.com/articles/135117 A federal judge has preliminarily approved a $6 million settlement that would resolve claims in three Fair Labor Standards Act overtime lawsuits against pest control and sanitation company Ecolab Inc. http://employment.law360.com/articles/135117 http://employment.law360.com/articles/135075 A federal appeals court has found that Cell Therapeutics Inc.’s settlement of a qui tam suit should not preclude it from bringing suit seeking contractual indemnification from its reimbursement consultant for damages as part of the government’s investigation over its leukemia treatment Trisonex. http://employment.law360.com/articles/135075 http://employment.law360.com/articles/135088 The Operating Engineers Pension Trust's board of trustees has launched a putative class action against JPMorgan Chase Bank NA for allegedly violating the Employment Retirement Income Security Act by taking undue risks with the collateral posted for a securities lending program that borrowed securities in the trust's retirement funds. http://employment.law360.com/articles/135088 http://employment.law360.com/articles/135102 Four Democrats in Congress gathered Wednesday to urge the Obama administration to abandon the Doha Development Round of trade negotiations and instead put more emphasis on environmental protections and labor rights. http://employment.law360.com/articles/135102 http://employment.law360.com/articles/135013 BJ's Wholesale Club Inc. has reached a $9.3 million settlement with a former department manager to resolve a class action accusing the warehouse retail store of failing to pay proper wages and overtime in violation of federal and state law. http://employment.law360.com/articles/135013